leaving the district excise department officials alarmed, not a single application from the interested traders has been submitted seeking license to open booze shops for 10 out of 80 such vends located across Dehradun district. The period for submitting applications had ended on Friday.
However, around 7500 traders have submitted application for procuring licenses for the rest 70 shops. The department would distribute licenses for opening liquor shops through lottery system on June 30.
The department has earned around Rs 15 crores in the form of processing fees collected from the traders who submitted application for securing license for opening liquor shops in the district, Dehradun district excise officer Manoj Kumar Upadhyay said. He further said that no application has been submitted for two India made foreign liquor (IMFl) shops, seven country made liquor (CMl) shops and one composite shop located at places like Chakrata, Raiwala, library Chowk and Kulri in Mussoorie, Akab Tehsil, Ballupur, Sahaspur and Shastrinagar in the district. He said that around 1000 applications had been received for 11 out of 12 composite shops from where IMFl, CMl and Beers would be sold together. This year-2017-18 (June to March), the State Government has fixed an excise tax revenue target of 422 crores against 320 crore collected for the year 2017-18. Excise taxes on liquor shops have been increased too from the previous 25 to 45 per cent, depending on the previous records of sale at the shops, he added.