The first phase of the auctioning of liquor shops for East Singhbhum District was held on Monday under tight security arrangements at the district collectorate by the district excise department in the presence of East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal.
In the first phase, 76 liquor outlets were auctioned out of a total of 161 liquor shops in the district. A total of 267 applicants took part on the first day of the auction process for the year 2015-16. The new liquor outlets will get their licence to operate from April 1 in city.
Auction of retail liquor outlets was done in the following segments, Indian-Made Foreign liquor (IMFl), country liquor and composite.
"The auctioning was held under tight security arrangements and gave us a settlement amount of over Rs 3.82 crore. The remaining outlets would be auctioned next week at the district collectorate," said assistant commissioner (excise) Jamshedpur, Arvind Kujur .
A total of 48 IMFl, 26 country-made liquor and two composite liquor outlets were auctioned as per state liquor policy of 2009 through lottery. Applicants from urban areas paid Rs 8,000 each while those in rural areas had to submitted Rs 5,000 as application fees for taking part in the auction process.
Incidentally, Jamshedpur excise department has been the highest revenue earner in the state earning Rs 6.7 crore per month revenue.
"East Singhbhum is leading revenue earner for state exchequer per month and an annual revenue in excess of Rs 80 crore. We have been given a monthly target of Rs 7.55 crore for the year 2015-16," said the assistant commissioner excise.
At Jamshedpur alone there are 98 Indian Make Foreign liquor (IMFl) licensed shops, 51 country-made liqour shop and 15 spicy liquor shops.