The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Rs. 475. If the ethanol price per litre is increased by this quantum, secondary issues arise. Particularly, you are doing this to offset losses of state sugar companies. But when you do this, several issues surface. Chiefly, when ethanol prices increase to this level, alcohol prices in the market rise, and then relatively, illicit liquor production increases. When illicit production rises, the government’s excise revenue drops, and we fail to meet revenue targets. Recently at the Public Finance Committee, I asked officials of the Excise Department about this. So, you must undertake this with that risk in mind. Either discuss with the Ministry of Finance to understand the revenue target implications properly before doing this; otherwise, addressing one problem in this way will create another problem, Hon. Minister.