There are few takers for the liquor vends in Chandigarh now due to increased cost of liquor from the new financial year. The UT Excise and Taxation Department continued to receive poor response during the auction of liquor vends.
After suffering huge losses in the first round of liquor vends auction, the UT Excise Department managed to auction only 21 liquor vends during the second round of auction held on Tuesday.
A liquor vend in Sector 32 went for highest bidding price of Rs2.6 crore while a liquor vend in Sector 46 went for lowest bidding price of Rs 40 lakh during the auction.
The UT Excise and Taxation Department on Tuesday earned Rs19.53 crore from the second round of auction of liquor vends against the reserve price of Rs15.95 crore.
Not a single bid has been received by the Department for 93 liquor vends. The UT Excise Department would now invite bids for remaining liquor vends again and a third round of auction would be held.
So far, the UT Excise Department has collected total revenue of Rs 117 crore after the two rounds of auction of liquor vends.
During the first round of auction held on April 23, the UT Excise Department generated revenue of Rs97.47 crore by allotting licenses for 103 liquor vends.
As expected, the Excise Department suffered huge losses this time due to the shifting of the highest revenue generating liquor vends and taverns being run from pre-fabricated structures along roadside in Chandigarh.
During the first auction, a liquor vend in village Kajheri had fetched the highest bid price of Rs2.22 crore against the reserve price of Rs68,10,163. A liquor vend at Industrial Area, Phase II attracted the second highest bid of Rs 2.11 crore against the reserve price of Rs1.22 crore.
So far, only three liquor vends have managed to attract bids above Rs2 crore.
Out of the total 217 liquor vends, the city has 152 IMFl (Indian made foreign liquor) vends and 65 country liquor vends.
A UT official said, “Due to the higher license fee of liquor vends, the auction has witnessed poor response. With 93 liquor vends yet to be auctioned, UT officials apprehend that the projected revenue can be less as compared to last year’s projections of Rs250 crore.”
Sources said that the main reason for the poor response is the increase in the MRP of liquor to be sold in Chandigarh in the new Excise year. This is now more than Haryana and at par with Punjab.
Earlier, people living in Panchkula or Mohali used to buy liquor from Chandigarh due to cheaper rates.
Now traders anticipate that the sale would come down significantly affecting their profit margins as no one from the neighbouring states would purchase their quota of liquor from the city.