The Assam excise department has made it mandatory for all liquor and beer manufacturing companies and units in Arunachal Pradesh, which use Assam’s roads for transportation of their products, to install GPS in their vehicles in a bid to stop diversion of liquor to Assam.

An official of the state excise department said diversion of liquor from Arunachal Pradesh to Assam had been a major cause of concern for the Assam excise department which had taken a slew of measures to stop this.

Liquor in Arunachal Pradesh is cheaper than that in Assam, prompting a section of black marketeers to divert liquor to Assam.

The Assam excise department incurs a huge loss for this.

The department on Wednesday published an order about the steps to be taken by the liquor and beer manufacturing units in Arunachal Pradesh while transporting their products using Assam’s roads.

“According to the order, GPS along with digital lockers will be mandatory for vehicles which will export liquor to other states through Assam and those that will transport products within Arunachal Pradesh but taking routes through Assam,” said the official.

A copy of the order said such liquor and beer manufacturing companies in Arunachal Pradesh will have to deposit Rs 25 lakh as bank guarantee to the Assam excise department so that the amount can be forfeited in case they violate rules.

“The details of the permits such as place of origin and destination, name of product, quantity of the consignment, date of validity , among others, must be displayed clearly on the front windscreen of the vehicle,” said the order.

The companies will also have to share information in advance — about consignments to be dispatched along with basic/detailed information — with the Assam excise department.

The drivers of vehicles, carrying such consignments, must report at the concerned excise checkpoints in the border areas so that the vehicles could be escorted in convoys under supervision of excise officials of the district concerned up to the designated points.

Many a time, the Assam excise department seized huge cache of liquor illegally diverted to Assam from Arunachal Pradesh.

The crackdown on diversion of liquor by the excise department, under minister Parimal Suklabaidya, has been seen as one of factors attributing to gradual increase of revenue of the department in the past three years.