Liquor prices in Haryana will witness a slight increase following the unveiling of new excise policy 2021-22 by the State Government on Thursday. The Covid cess on liquor will however discontinue from May 20 onwards in the state.
Haryana cabinet which met under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar gave approval to the new excise policy 2021-20.
“The new excise policy will be applicable from May 20 and the Government has decided to discontinue COVID cess on sale of liquor in the next policy (2021-22). COVID cess was imposed in 2020-21 for generating additional revenue in view of COVID pandemic,” the Chief Minister said while talking to the mediapersons after the meeting.
He said that marginal increase has been proposed in the minimum retail sale prices of liquor in the new policy. However, export duty on country liquor, IMFS and beer has been reduced. No change has been made in the fee structure of bar licenses. PET (Plastic) bottles shall not be allowed for bottling of IMFL and metro liquor, he added.
Under the new policy, the sale hours of retail outlets of liquor have been re-fixed. The sale of liquor will be allowed in rural areas from 8 am to 11 pm from April to October and from 8 am to 10 pm from November to March. In case of urban areas, the liquor vends will open from 8 am to 12 midnight throughout the year. In 2020-21, the liquor vends were allowed to open from 7 am to 7 pm.
This time, to encourage blending of ethanol in petrol and proper utilization of agriculture produce, a new license (E-3/E-3A) has been introduced by the State Government for setting up an ethanol based distillation plant with a nominal fee.
The liquor vends shall be allotted for a period of one year (365 days). The government has also decided that in case, any vend or vends of any zone are closed or are subsequently closed on account of falling under COVID containment zone, its license fee and quota shall be proportionately waived off in proportion to days of closure.
Since, the period of allotment of retail vends for 2020-21 will come to an end on May 19, the government is expecting that the growth in excise revenue for policy year 2020-21 will reach 15 percent.
The overall collection from excise in financial year 2020-21 is Rs 6792 crore against collection of Rs 6361 crore in financial year 2019-20. Despite complete lockdown till the first week of May, 2020 and overall economic slowdown for major part of the year 2020-21, excise revenue during the financial year 2020-21 has witnessed growth of 6.69 percent in Haryana.