Chandigarh: Punjab Finance, and Excise & Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday urged the Union Government to take immediate, decisive action to regulate and monitor Methyl Alcohol (Methanol). He emphasised the urgent need to enact dedicated central legislation to safeguard precious human lives and prevent future hooch tragedies. The Minister expressed these views while chairing a high-level review meeting with Additional Chief Secretary (Excise) D.K. Tiwari and Excise and Taxation Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal.
Elaborating on the logistical complexities, Excise Minister Cheema highlighted that nearly 90 percent of the methanol consumed within India is imported from foreign countries. He said that upon entering the country via various ports and customs points, this hazardous chemical traverses multiple state boundaries before reaching its designated industrial end-users. Excise Minister further added, “Because methanol crosses several inter-state borders during its journey, its movement falls squarely under Entry 41 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, which governs trade and commerce with foreign countries and inter-state trade. Consequently, no single state government, acting alone, possesses the legal jurisdiction or technical infrastructure to track or regulate this cross-country supply chain independently. This makes a central legislative framework constitutionally imperative for effective oversight.”
Emphasising an alarming dimension of this regulatory challenge, Excise Minister Cheema pointed out the unrestricted availability of the chemical online. He said, “Methanol is freely available on prominent e-commerce platforms. Currently, it is treated as an ordinary chemical commodity, allowing its online listing and sales to remain entirely unregulated. This enables any individual to purchase this toxic substance without identity verification, documentation, or a declared purpose.”
The Minister noted that this ease of retail access severely hampers the capacity of state enforcement agencies to monitor, intercept, or prevent the potential diversion of the chemical for illicit use. “Since national e-commerce channels are governed exclusively by central laws, a central legislation stands as the only effective mechanism to mandate end-to-end accountability across online supply chains,” said Cheema.
The Minister further added that the current regulatory regime is heavily fragmented and scattered across multiple legacy laws, including the Poisons Act of 1919, the Petroleum Act of 1934, and the Inflammable Substances Act of 1952. He said that none of these laws was specifically designed to address the unique dangers of methanol diversion. He said, “These existing statutes only address methanol incidentally as a toxic, flammable, or hazardous chemical, completely failing to establish a dedicated tracking mechanism, buyer registration, or coordinated interstate tracking.”
Highlighting that State Excise legislations are insufficient to check the sale of methanol for illegal purposes, the Excise Minister Cheema said, “Traditional State Excise legislations are structurally designed to regulate ethyl alcohol produced locally via fermentation under strict state licensing. However, methanol is a petroleum-based byproduct synthesised through petrochemical processes that enters states via interstate highways.”
He explained that this regulatory gap is increasingly critical as NITI Aayog’s strategic roadmap scales India’s methanol production capacity. This surge makes a strict separation of the ethyl and methyl alcohol supply chains a matter of absolute urgency to eliminate pilferage.
To address these systemic vulnerabilities, Excise Minister Cheema said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann-led Punjab Government has submitted five core recommendations to the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry. First, the state proposes the enactment of dedicated central legislation under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, to comprehensively cover the import, storage, distribution, sale, transportation, and end-use of the chemical. Second, the framework must mandate a national end-to-end tracking system originating directly at the port of entry. Third, the proposal demands a strict prohibition on e-commerce sales to unregistered or non-industrial buyers. Fourth, it calls for establishing strict penal provisions specifically targeting the diversion of methanol into illicit liquor. Finally, the Excise Minister urged the centre to convene an urgent meeting of all State Excise Ministers, chaired by the Union Commerce Minister, to ensure seamless federal synchronisation.
While pressing for these essential central interventions to safeguard human lives, Finance and Excise & Taxation Minister Harpal Singh Cheema directed the Excise Department to immediately follow up with authorities in his counterpart’s Union Ministry office regarding his earlier high-level correspondence on this critical public safety issue. The Minister said the Punjab Government continues to take strong measures at the state level through enhanced enforcement, robust inter-departmental coordination, and strengthened monitoring under the Poisons Act and its related rules.
