The contractors of English wine shop at Gawali Palasia and Simrole are running the ahata (which is a comfortable place to sit for the customers, who drink and purchase the liquor from the concerned English wine shop) without the Government permission. The cost of Gawli Palsia shop is Rs5 crore yearly and the cost of Simrole wine shop is also Rs5 crore yearly. According to excise rules, there are two types of ahata ‘on’ or ‘off’. If the English wine shop has ‘on’ ahata license, the owner of the English wine shop has to pay two per cent of the total cost of the shop, which amounts to Rs10 lakh yearly for the English wine shop of Rs5 crore.
In both the cases of Gawali Palasia English wine shop and Simrole English wine shop, the shop have ‘off’ ahata in excise records, which means the contractor will only have a shop to sell English liquor and he doesn’t have the permission to provide sitting facility in room and any type of shelter. But in Gawli Palasia and Simrole, the English wine shop owners have run the ahata for the complete year and have not paid the excise tax of Rs10 lakh each for licensed ahata.
locals demand that the Government should take strict action against both the English wine shop owners and should recover the license fees of ahata that amounts to a total of Rs20 lakh and also the fine. And a police case should also be registered against the owner of the English wine shops for illegally running ahata and providing facilityto the people for drinking. The excise officers of Mhow, Signath and Akasnsha Garg, told The Pioneer that they have made their cases.