The state government eased the existing excise policy and revised it in a way to put an end to monopoly of some business players in the trade. It has also taken some measures to put a check on illegal liquor supply to ensure credibility of branded liquor. Excise and Prohibition Minister Jai Pratap Singh said that the existing excise rules were promoting traders to dominate the trade. “The speciality in the new excise policy is that the maximum retail price will remain fixed despite increase in excise duty. The allotment of shops were being done through e-lottery system and was totally transparent,” he said.
Singh said that the state government had initiated bar code system replacing hologram system. “This bar code system will put a check on illegal liquor supply as the department will be able to track liquor from manufacturing point to the sale point in the state from now. The supply will be under camera activity and CCTVs will be installed at manufacturing units. Besides, trucks carrying liquor bottles will be laced with GPS tracking system,” he said. Describing in detail the merit of Bar Code system, Singh said that by scanning it on a bottle one can get the details like name of distillery, retailer and wholesalers to ensure credibility of the product. The minister said that the distilleries (Star Bruchem in Gonda, Bahedi in Bareilly), which were lying closed for a long time, had started manufacturing. “Some foreign companies dealing in liquor have also obtained licences while a new distillery is to be set up in Shahjahanpur,” he said. Meanwhile, for issuance of licence for liquor shops in the third phase, the Excise department will hold an e-lottery on April 16 and the last date for submitting the application will be April 12. As of now, the Excise department has issued licences for 22,838 shops out of 26,005 licences for shops for 2018-19.