Prohibition and Excise Minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, on Monday, announced that the new excise policy would be ready for implementation by July this year.
Briefing the media about the discussions that took place during the meeting of the cabinet sub-committee, at the state Secretariat, on Monday, the minister said that the proposed policy would ensure transparency, and that it would be free from all the loopholes found in the existing policy.
He said that the new policy was being designed based on the policies that exist in other states.
Mopidevi said that the state government would try to clear the impression that the excise department works only for revenues. He said that the cabinet sub-committee would meet again on 26 May, to finalise the new policy.
The meeting was attended by ministers Anam Ramnarayana Reddy (Finance), P Sabitha Indra Reddy (Home), C Ramchandraiah (Endowments) and D Sridhar Babu (Civil Supplies).
Speaking about the CBI's probe into Jagan's assets case, the minister accused a section of media of publishing baseless stories. He alleged that the media was trying to "kill people" by publishing stories with "distorted facts". Claiming that he did not receive any call from the CBI, he said it was the media which has publishing the false dates and times of ministers being summoned by the probing agency. (INN)