Haryana to relocate 500 liquor outlets; mandates bill for sale above Rs 1000
CHANDIGARH: Come April 1, Haryana will relocate nearly 500 liquor outlets from the National and State Highways across the State as per the directions of the Supreme Court, while also shutting down 185 other liquor shops located in villages adhering to the resolutions passed by the respective gram panchayats.
As per the new excise policy for the year 2017-18, the State government will set up an enforcement wing to check the illegal sale and smuggling of liquor. It has also been made mandatory for the licensees to issue bill for each sale above Rs 1000, and in case of sale of lesser amount, they will have to issue bill if the customer so desires.
The State excise and taxation minister Capt. Abhimanyu said on Sunday that there can be a maximum of 3500 retail outlets of Country Made Liquor and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the State for the year 2017-18. The quota of Country Liquor and IMFl has been retained at 950 lakh PL and 550 lakh PL respectively.
The allotment of liquor vends this year would be made on the basis of zones in a shift from allotment on the basis of group of vends in the previous year. The zones will comprise of six retail vends wherein the allottee will have a freedom and flexibility to locate his vend within his zone subject to the legal provisions and directions of the Supreme Court in this regard wherein apex court directed that no liquor shop shall be located within a distance of 500 meters from National and State Highways.
The licensee shall also have the flexibility to either sell CL or IMFL or both at any of his vends in the zone. Further, to plug the menace of bootlegging, two sub-vends per zone have been permitted in the urban area for the first time against a fixed fee of Rs 10 lakh per sub-vend.
The bars and pubs will continue to function and the directions of the Supreme Court with regard to condition of being at 500 meters away from National and State Highway.
The Export Duty in case of rectified spirits and ENA has been reduced from Rs 1.5 per BL to Rs 0.25 per BL to reduce the huge existing gap between export duty rates of Haryana and Punjab. It is likely to enhance the capacity utilisation of manufacturing units of the State, Capt. Abhimanyu said.
The Haryana government has decided to put to auction by way of inviting bids for wholesale license of supply of Imported Foreign Liquor (Bottled In Origin) in the State to tap the optimum potential of government revenue.
The government is likely to fetch revenue of above Rs 50 Crore with the new step. It has also rationalised the duty on supply of liquor through Canteen Stores Department by tapping the huge gap as compared to the neighboring state of Punjab.
Duty on Country Liquor and IMFL has been rationalised and certain new categories have also been introduced for the purpose of Duty.