A delegation of the Society for the Welfare of West Bengal Foreign Liquor Licences met state's Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta at state secretariat Nabanna and submitted a memorandum seeking a series of policy and regulatory reforms.
There are around 6,000 liquor shops in the state, an official of the West Bengal Excise Department told The Statesman.
"Not only in the case of liquor scam, in the case of sand, coal, iron, marble and in many other cases, state exchequer has been lost. This political party was formed to earn money from various sources," CPM leader Tanmay Bhattachrya said.
Debashis Dhar said the TMC built a model wherein they could benefit from the revenue collected by various departments of the state government.
Bottlers told The Statesman that a total of 36 bottlers across the state allegedly suffered and were extorted by the ‘distributors’ allegedly under the instructions of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
From state ministers to senior leaders, the ruling BJP has criticised the former Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in Bengal over the alleged "liquor scam" and stated that all the culprits in the matter will be "held accountable".
