Sharp differences over lowering the age of alcohol drinkers from 25 to 21 in Delhi reportedly forced the AAP Government on Thursday to put the contentious Excise Department in cold storage. While a series of changes were proposed, the Arvind Kejriwal Government has approved a new excise policy for 2015 in the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. According to sources, the AAP Government has decided not to lower the age of the alcohol users in the national Capital. This is not the first time that the proposal related to lowering the drinking age was brought before the Cabinet meeting. The erstwhile Sheila Dikshit Government had earlier tried four times during her 15-years rule to lower the drinking age. But due to strong opposition within her Cabinet, she could not get it approved.
While clearing its new proposed excise policy, the Cabinet has decided to allow opening of microbreweries in the national Capital. Once operational, Delhiites would be able to consume fresh-off-the-tap inhouse brewed beer in different flavours. The Government is also in the process of relaxing complex procedures for grant of P-10 and P-13 permits for serving liquor in parties through an automated system.
The microbreweries, better known in commercial format as brewpubs, would be reportedly allowed to function in five-star hotels and other restobars.
The microbreweries produce between 5,000 and 50,000 litres of beer, a day. None of it is bottled and there are no preservatives added in the process. A senior officer said that once microbreweries are allowed to function, people would be able to consume fresh beer.
At present, sale of only bottled beer is allowed in the city. When the bottled beer finally gets to the consumer, it could be as old as four months and may have faced fluctuating temperatures, poor storage and transportation. Mass produced beer is often treated with glycerine as a preservative to stretch its shelf-life for up to six months, but the product suffers in the bargain. It is only in India that bottled beer is chilled before consumption.
The Cabinet also decided not to increase excise duty on any liquor brand. It has also decided to bring at par the excise duty on both Indian and foreign beer. At present, the excise duty on Indian beer is much higher than the foreign beer. The Government has also decided not to impose excise duty on the duty paid foreign liquor brands.
The Government also decided to collect the excise duty from the wholesale licencee at import level itself, which means that excise duty on liquor shall be received much before it enters the territorial jurisdiction of Delhi. This decision will prevent the pilferage of excise duty to a great extent and allow only well established and serious stakeholders to participate in supply of liquor.
Even for the annual renewal of liquor licences, the restaurant-bars would no longer have to follow long procedures as they would be granted licences by simply producing self-attested documents. A senior officer said, “When liquor or bar licence is allotted, one has to produce NoCs from several departments. One does not need to produce NoCs again to renew their licences. All one would be required to do is to pay licence fee every year.”
In order to curb the inflow of low quality economy brands of liquor in Delhi, the Cabinet decided to enhance the sale verification limit of economy brands of liquor from the existing requirement of sale of 60,000 cases (including sale in Delhi) to sale of 80,000 cases (excluding sale in Delhi). This will allow only well established economy brands to get registered in Delhi and will facilitate availability of quality liquor to the Delhiites.