Buying a liquor vend in Chandigarh would be a burdensome task from now onwards. The UT Administration on Thursday made further amendments in the excise rules making it more stringent for bidders of liquor vend.
After increasing the amount of earnest money of liquor vends, the UT Administration has now decided to give only seven days time to successful tenderers to deposit the bidding amount of a liquor vend. As per the new rules, the successful tenderer will be required to deposit 30 per cent of total bid amount (inclusive of earnest money) along-with the installments due within seven days from the date of finalising the tenders.
In case, the earnest money exceeds the total 30 per cent of the bid amount, then the successful tenderer will have to deposit the balance amount of installments due after adjusting the earnest money within seven days from the date of finalisation of the tender failing which the earnest money will stand forfeited. And, the bids for such licences will be invited again by calling fresh tenders. The amendment in the excise rules is aimed at curtailing the recent trend where liquor vends were being auctioned at higher prices and then surrendered to ensure monopoly of another contractor in the same area.
To keep check on such instances, the administration had earlier announced that each tenderer is required to furnish pay order/demand draft of Rs 35 lakh as earnest money deposit for a liquor vend. Informing about the new amendments, a senior official of the UT Administration said, “In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 58 of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914 (Punjab Act 1 of 1914) as applicable to Union Territory of Chandigarh, the UT Administrator has further amend Punjab liquor licence Rules, 1956. These rules will be called the Punjab liquor licence (Chandigarh 5th Amendment) Rules, 2013.
The new amendments are likely to further burdened the bidders and likely to bear on future auction of liquor vends. Already, the higher cost of liquor, higher excise duty, higher licence fee for allotment of liquor vends…remains the major factors resulting in declining excise revenue generation in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
Out of the total 217 liquor vends, the city has 152 IMFl (Indian made foreign liquor) vends and 65 country liquor vends. So far, the UT Excise Department has organised four auctions of liquor vends. This time, not a single bid was received by the department for 74 liquor vends while about 17 vendors surrendered their liquor vends after they failed to pay 30 per cent of the bid amount within the stipulated period of time.
Surprisingly, over 50 per cent liquor vends did not receive a single bid in the first auction. In last four auctions, the Department had managed to auction about 125 liquor vends and the total revenue generated by auctions stands at above Rs 140 crore now. The UT Excise Department could auction only six liquor vends out of remaining 98 vends in the last fourth auction. Given the lukewarm response during liquor vends auctions and dwindling liquor consumption in the city, the UT Administration seems to be paying dearly for the ill-conceived excise policy.