In the wake of liquor retailers’ concern over reduced profit margins due to the newly introduced Integrated Excise Management System (IEMS), the state government has defended the system as “aligned with modernisation drives across the country.
Excise reforms measures, including IEMS, are aimed at transparency, revenue protection, and aligning with national regulatory trends, according to an official statement issued by the Excise, Registration, Taxation & Stamps department on Tuesday.
Taking note of statements by certain associations of liquor retailers regarding IEMS and rationalisation of retailer margins, the department said, “Several claims being circulated are selective, incomplete and fail to present the larger public interest, fiscal realities and national regulatory context within which these reforms are being undertaken.”
Asserting that the initiatives taken by state government are consistent with other states, it said, “Across India, state governments are increasingly modernising excise administration through QR-based bottle tracking, digital inventory management, stricter compliance systems, supply-chain monitoring, structured pricing frameworks, and enhanced revenue protection measures.”
“States such as Delhi, Karnataka and several others are presently undertaking major excise reforms focused on transparency, digitisation and tighter regulatory oversight.”
Point out that in many states retailer margins are tightly capped among other measures, the department cited Tamil Nadu’s TASMAC model and Delhi’s move toward stronger government control.
On IEMS, the government said the system was introduced “primarily to modernise Meghalaya’s excise ecosystem and strengthen transparency and accountability across the liquor supply chain.”