CHENNAI: The state government has amended the Tamil Nadu Liquor Retail Vending (In Shops and Bars) Rules, 2003, allowing bars to come up anywhere within 100 metres of a Tasmac outlet, not just on its premises as before. The idea is to draw more bidders into the online tender process and make bar licences harder to monopolise.
In addition, the minimum area required for a bar has also gone up, from 15 square metres to 20 square metres, or about 205 sq ft. The Government Order has also scrapped a clause that let district collectors decide plinth-area requirements for bars larger than 15 square metres, which officials said will speed up approvals.
Bidders in the online tender earlier had to produce a No Objection Certificate (NOC) as a precondition from the owner of the premises where they planned to run the bar. Officials say this single requirement kept the field to only those with access to the right property, and an owner willing to sign, to be able to apply.
“The revised norms will make the online tender process more transparent and competitive by allowing any eligible bidder to participate instead of limiting opportunities to a few individuals with access to specific premises,” a senior Tasmac official told TNIE. Officials expect the changes to pull in more bidders in the next round of tenders and break up the current concentration of bars among a handful of operators.
The Tamil Nadu Bar Owners Association, however, said existing bar owners have already sunk crores into infrastructure and now have no clarity on where they stand. The association also argued that bars only make commercial sense next to a Tasmac outlet, and that the NOC problem hasn’t been eliminated since operators will still need one. It has asked the government to reconsider before rolling out the new rules.
‘Fresh concerns’
Customers will now have to walk from the Tasmac outlet to the bar, and in several locations, that path stretches past shops, offices and other commercial establishments. Bar owners and residents’ groups worry this will mean liquor bottles being carried in full view of these establishments and discourage some customers from visiting the bars at all.