Punjab Government is all set to get a feeling of high. For, the Cabinet on Monday approved “consumer-friendly” excise policy which will fetch additional revenue collection of Rs 724 crore, just before the ensuing lok Sabha elections.
Under the new excise policy, approved in the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the rates have been fixed for liquor to be sold during functions at marriage palaces, and the repeated offenders now have to lose license.
“The Government has fixed rates of liquor during marriage functions. These liquor rates will be displayed at the department’s website. If any consumer complains that a licensee has sold him liquor at a rate higher than these rates for a function at a marriage palace, a fine of Rs 1 lakh will be imposed on the licensee. For second offence, the fine will be doubled and in case of third offence, the licence of such vend will be cancelled,” said a Government spokesperson.
The policy is expected to fetch Rs 4,671 crore of revenue from liquor — Rs 724 crore more against the previous fiscal year’s revenue collection which was Rs 3,947 crores.The group size, a unit for allotment of vend, would be reduced and the number of groups would almost be doubled over the previous year which would result in competition amongst various licensees and bring down the retail prices of liquor, said the spokesperson.
To bring transparency in receiving applications for allotment of vends, now the banks would also be authorised to receive applications.This would be in addition to the existing system of receipt of applications in the AETC offices and enable the applicant to go to any of the authorised bank branches to submit application for any group of any district.
The Department expects to collect Rs 50 crore extra as a result of this decision, he said. In order to reduce rates of IMFl, the department has reduced the rates of extra licence fee on IMFl and has tried to bring them close to those prevailing in the neighbouring State of Haryana.
The number of vends has been frozen at the same level as last year. The quota of country liquor has been increased from 920 lakh proof litres to 950 lakh proof litres. The quota of IMFl has been increased from 440 lakh proof litres to 450 lakh proof litres.