Excise department pays a meagre Rs 1,000 reward to informers

A maximum Rs 1,000 is what an informer gets as reward for tipping off the state excise department.

Zee Media Bureau

Mumbai: Informers, tipping off the state excise department should not expect a handsome reward, for, the department pays a maximum of Rs 1,000 only.

As per a report in the DNA newspaper, the meagre compensation “inhibits the excise department's ability to expand their network of informers. A strong informer network will help in ground-level intelligence collection on hooch rackets like the one that wreaked havoc in Malvani, which claimed over 100 lives recently.”

“Unlike the police, the excise department has few provisions for granting prizes to informers… According to the rules framed in 1976, the department can grant cash prizes of Rs 500 to informers. This may have been a princely sum then, but means little today. The maximum we now gift is Rs 1,000, irrespective of whether he/she has spent money on gathering or parting with the information,” the DNA, quoting a senior state excise official said.

“We have to take care to retain a good informer with inside knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the system. They can lead us to a major racket. After all, one good informer is equivalent to 50 officers,” the DNA, citing another official said.