Kerala Excise

The Kerala State Excise is the law enforcement agency for excise in state of Kerala, India. Kerala Excise has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital.The Excise Academy and Research Centre trains the excise officers. The Department is administering laws related to Liquor, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Medicinal Preparations containing alcohol and narcotic drugs, etc. The senior officers are drawn from the IPS, IRS as well as the IAS.^[1]

Duties

The principal duties of the Department are protection, augmentation and collection of Excise Revenue and enforcement of the above acts and various Rules made there under. The Department prevents leakage of revenue, and exerts effective control on the abuse of liquor and Intoxicating Drugs. The duties of Excise Department are broadly classified as Collection of Revenue, Enforcement activity to prevent illicit liquor production, sale and trafficking and Campaign against Alcoholism. Liquor includes spirits of wine, arrack, spirits, wine, toddy, beer and all liquid consisting of or containing alcohol. Individual has no fundamental right over the manufacture and trade of liquor. Absolute right on liquor is vested with the State. Government formulates Abkari policy of the state every year. The policy formulated by the State Government is implemented by the Excise Department.^[2]

Organizational Structure

For the convenience of administration, the State of Kerala is divided into three Zones headed by Joint Excise Commissioners.

• South Zone with headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram
• Central Zone with headquarters at Ernakulam and
• North Zone with headquarters at Kozhikode.

Fourteen Excise Divisions come under the above three Zones which are co-terminus to the 14 Revenue Districts of the State, headed by Deputy Excise Commissioners. In each Division there is an Asst. Excise Commissioner for supervision of enforcement activities. Each Division is further divided into Excise Circles, which are co-terminus to the Revenue Taluk of the State under the control of Circle Inspectors of Excise. Each Circle comprises one or more Excise Ranges, which are the micro level unit of Excise Department and the primary enforcement unit headed by Excise Inspectors.^[3][4]

References

Further reading

• Custodial Deaths
• Corruption