The Government has roped in Swiggy and Zomato for home delivery of liquor in nine urban areas of the State – a move aimed at reducing the crowd at liquor shops when they open on Wednesday, Excise Secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey said on Tuesday. The Government is also in talks with other companies in order to smoothen the system of home delivery of liquor, he added.
The Government has divided Jharkhand in three categories – large urban areas, small urban areas and rural areas, said Choubey. Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Deoghar, Giridih, Hazaribag, Jamshedpur, Ramgarh and Palamu are the nine large urban areas where Swiggy and Zomato have agreed to deliver liquor.
The home delivery facility will only be available in the large urban areas, he said. "Customers in the identified large cities can place orders online for home delivery and also buy liquor from the shops. The ones living in small cities can get tokens online and buy liquor, while the rural areas will only have over-the-counter liquor sale facility," Choubey added.
Following the footsteps of Delhi and West Bengal, the Government here has decided to increase the tax on liquor in a bid to make up for the revenue lost during the lockdown. However, in accordance with the guidelines of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), liquor stores in containment zones will remain closed until further notice.
"The VAT has been increased from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, and an additional 10 per cent excise tax will also be charged," said the Excise Secretary. "The total price will increase by 20-22 per cent," he added.
The liquor shops will open at 7am and down their shutters at 7pm, said officials from the Excise Department. "We have also asked the law enforcement agencies to deploy sufficient forces at the liquor shops in order to maintain social distancing and prevent chaos," Choubey said.
The State has earned zero revenue from Excise since the lockdown was imposed in March, officials said. However, the Excise Department is still hopeful of achieving its revenue target of Rs 1,600 crore in this financial year. "The additional tax and excise duty will get us around Rs 200 to 300 crore additional revenue if the quantity of liquor sold is the same as it was before the lockdown," said Choubey. "This may help us make up for the loss incurred during the two months of lockdown," he added.
Many States decided to open liquor stores in lockdown 3.0 on May 3, but Chief Minister Hemant Soren decided to keep the stores closed in Jharkhand as a precautionary measure against Covid-19. West Bengal, Punjab and even Chhattisgarh – a Left Wing Extremism-affected State that not only shares its borders with Jharkhand but also has demographic resemblance with the latter– have already permitted home delivery of liquor, say news reports.
Social distancing went for a toss in most of the States that opened liquor shops after tipplers thronged the outlets. Officials fear that opening liquor stores here may cause a spike in Covid-19 transmission as it will be difficult to maintain social distancing at the shops.
