Excise Dept’s move for sponsorships to conduct staff sports event draws flak

Thiruvananthapuram: In a controversial move, the Kerala Excise Department has decided to rope in sponsors to conduct the sports meet of its employees, in addition to collecting funds from staff. The fund collection is intended to meet the expenses for the district sports meets and the state meet scheduled in Kollam during November.

The Excise Department has issued instructions to identify sponsors as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds from the Kerala State Beverages Corporation Ltd. (BEVCO) are unavailable this year. However, Excise staff said such a move would compel them to accept sponsorship from even bar owners.

A section of Excise staff is also aggrieved over another related decision of the department to collect a higher contribution from them for the sports meet than last year.

The instructions were included in the minutes of a meeting of the Arts and Sports Central Committee chaired by the Additional Excise Commissioner.

As per the authorities, the employees are expected to contribute up to five per cent of their basic pay, and a total amount of around ₹1 crore is sought to be collected this way. The maximum amount which could be paid by personnel of various ranks is: Civil Excise Officer – ₹1,821; Preventive Officer – ₹1,956; Inspector – ₹2,800; Circle Inspector – ₹3,160; Assistant Commissioner – ₹4,780 and Deputy Commissioner – ₹7,025. These amounts are nearly twice the contributions suggested last year.

It is learnt that the Excise Department rejected a demand by staff organisations not to collect more than ₹1,500 from each employee.