BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government received 19,416 applications till Thursday for the selection of 1297 liquor shops in the state through lottery.
As many as 1156 India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) OFF shops and 240 country liquor shops have been slotted for lottery. While the last date for submitting the application for many districts are over, the deadline is April 3 for some districts.
The Excise department has received an average of 15 applications per shop. Of the total applications, 18,530 requests have been received for 1132 IMFL OFF shops. Applications have been received for all the IMFL OFF shops in 27 of the 31 Excise districts.
The remaining 24 IMFL OFF shops, most of which are in the Cuttack district, are expected to receive applications by the last date. Similarly, 886 applications have been received against 165 country liquor shops. The remaining shops are expected to receive applications by the last date.
The lottery in all the 31 Excise districts will be over by April 9 and all the licenses to the fresh allottees will be issued by April 15.
The State Government recently decided to settle all the existing IMFL OFF shops as well as extra neutral alcohol-based country liquor shops on a fixed monthly consideration money basis through lottery. Most of the existing retailers had been continuing for over 15 to 20 years on the basis of annual renewal.
As decided, Collectors had floated advertisements for inviting application for settlement of shops. The applications have been invited online and the lottery will be conducted by Collectors in the presence of applicants.
"The settlement of shops through fresh lottery is being done in a very fair and transparent manner. The process is expected to break the cartel which has developed over a period of time as majority of these shops are now being controlled directly or indirectly by a small number of players," said an Excise department official.
The initiative has been taken up under 5T action plan of Excise department. An applicant has to submit a non-refundable application fee of Rs 1 lakh online to participate in the lottery. The applicant also needs to deposit an earnest money deposit (EMD) equivalent to three months consideration money of the shop applied for.
If unsuccessful, the EMD will be refunded online within 15 days of completion of lottery. The licence once granted will continue for five years including year of grant unless otherwise directed by the State government.