liquor is all set to become costlier in Haryana. Announcing the new excise policy for the financial year 2015-16, the Haryana Government on Wednesday enhanced the VAT (value added tax) on liquor from 4 per cent to 8 per cent with surcharge. Also, a new concept of modern shops will be introduced to cater to the demands of urban consumers in the State.
The new excise policy, which will be in place for one year has been approved in the meeting of State Cabinet held under the Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Wednesday. In the new policy, the minimum retail sale price of liquor in Haryana has been increased, though it remains cheaper comparatively to its capital-Chandigarh. The State Government has reduced the import duty on alcohol to be used for industrial purposes from Rs6 per Pl to Rs3 per Pl.
Apart from this, e-tendering has been introduced for the first time for allotment of retail outlets. The State Government has also decided not to open liquor vends in those panchayats which do not want to open the vends in their villages. In addition, liquor vends would not be opened in villages where Kanya Gurkul is situated and within the limit of 150 metre of religious places and educational institutes.
A spokesperson of the State Government said that the participation fee for the bidders has been reduced from Rs25,000 per vend to Rs10,000 per vend to encourage participation while the percentage of fixed quota of country liquor (Cl) has been enhanced from 25 per cent to 40 per cent to be equally divided amongst all the distilleries.
For revenue generation, the Excise and Taxation Department has decided to hire some locations for setting up of liquor vends having high revenue potential in Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) areas and Haryana tourist complexes for which the rent will be paid by the Department.
The fee of bar licence which had not been increased for last eight years has been enhanced in the new excise policy. Earlier, the fee for bar licence was Rs6 lakh per annum across the state which has been increased to Rs12.5 lakh for Gurgaon, Rs10 lakh for Faridabad and Rs7.5 lakh for other districts. In the new policy, the maximum basic quota of country liquor (Cl) at 900 lakh proof litre (Pl) and Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFl) at 500 lakh Pl has been retained. The maximum number of retail outlets has also been kept at the same level of 3500 as in the year 2014-15.
For the purpose of allotment, the vends will be clubbed into groups comprising of a maximum number of three vends of either country liquor or IMFl, he said. Wholesale license of country liquor (l-13) will be granted both to retail licensees as well as the distilleries. In the case of wholesale license of IMFl (l-1), the licenses will be granted to the retail licensees giving maximum revenue. And, the license fee of the distilleries has been rationalised by linking the same to their installed capacities. Online system of issuance of permits and passes from distilleries is being developed which will be introduced during 2015-16, said the spokesperson.
Giving details of e-tendering, the spokesperson said that under the process, prospective licensees have to sign up themselves on the department portal and obtain computer generated ID and Password. licensees have to register themselves for submitting the bids for each district by creating corpus of EMD and participation fees. There will be no negotiations and the highest bidder of each group will be declared successful. In case of a tie among the highest bidders, the successful bidder will be decided by draw of lots. It is expected that revenue of about Rs3700 crore would be generated this year under the existing excise policy.