We tried to close door that caused corruption

In a telephonic interview with Aditi Phadnis, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister SUKHVINDER SUKHU talks of rationalising power prices and subsidising the purchase of milk through sales of alcoholic products. He says the state's finances are back on track. Edited excerpts.

- Aditi Phadnis

In two years, what have you gained? And what have you lost?

I have neither gained nor lost; I have learnt. I learnt how to protect a legitimately elected government from political poaching. We wanted institutional change when we came to power. To achieve that, we scrapped or changed nearly 100 laws that were old and outdated. We tried to close the door that caused corruption and leakage, because of which in one year we were able to earn additional revenue amounting to ₹2,200 crore.

How did you do this?

For example, in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) excise policy, tax on alcohol vends was just 10 per cent. It was a fixed sum of money, and a pittance. I said "let's change this system to open auction." So we shifted to competitive bidding for liquor vends. Whereas in the BJP's four years, annual revenue from liquor vends used to be around ₹150 crore (₹600 crore in four years), we found that by moving to an open-auction system we earned ₹600 crore in just one year!