Over the past three years, there has been an almost 300 per cent hike in the amount of Indianmade Foreign Liquor (IMFL) smuggled into Delhi from Haryana, the hub of cheap alcohol.

With this latest rise in prices of alcohol in Delhi, there is likely to be a further spurt in crossborder smuggling.

A crackdown by the excise intelligence bureau on illegal transfer and stocking of IMFL led to the confiscation of nearly 1.03 lakh bottles of IMFL, most of them smuggled from Haryana, in 2013-14. The department seized 36,000 bottles in 2011-12.

A senior excise department official said, among all varieties of liquor, IMFL is smuggled the most. Besides the fact that there is little or no difference in beer prices in the two states, a government official cited the difference in excise duties Delhi and Haryana levy on IMFL as the main reason for it being the most smuggled variety.

For example, a bottle of Black Label costs about Rs 3,600 in the national Capital, while in Haryana, one needs to pay only Rs 2400 for the same quantity.

Similarly, in the case of Royal Stag, the most consumed brand in the city, the difference is at least Rs 150 for a bottle. The official said the large- scale smuggling of liquor cost the Delhi government about Rs 200- 250 crore in losses annually. Explaining further, he pointed out that the difference in excise policies works to the liquor mafia's benefit.

"In Delhi, the liquor business is under the government's control, while in Haryana, it is virtually run by private operators. In Haryana, vend licences are auctioned and dealers make a onetime payment for licences.

Thereafter, they sell the liquor according to their own preferences," the official said.

To learn more about the smuggling, Mail Today talked to some police officials, one of whom said the illegal operation does not require much infrastructure.

"A smuggler only needs vehicles to transport liquor. They purchase boxes at wholesale prices from Haryana and transport them to the Delhi border. Even if you account for transportation and other expenses, such as payment made to police at border points, they make a hefty profit," the official said.