NEW DELHI: With the government deciding to bring back the old excise policy from next month, liquor shops in the city remained shut on Tuesday. An employee at a liquor store situated at the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, ITO was seen packing the leftover stock while others cleaned the slabs, broken bottles from the floor, after the government’s decision. Only a few shops were seen operating.
At least 176 liquor vends in the city surrendered their licenses to sell liquor opting out of the extension with effect from Tuesday. This is in addition to around 130 vends being closed over the past month, running into losses.
“The competent authority has granted approval for discontinuation of zonal retail licenses (L-72) of zone numbers 2, 4, 11, 12, 15 and 19 with effect from August 1, 2022. Officials are directed to seal the liquor stock/retail vend of the retail zone concerned, mentioned against their name,” stated an order issued by the government’s excise department.
So far a total of 310 liquor vends have shut since the new excise policy came under the scanner of Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena. The L-G on Monday approved the government’s proposal to extend the excise policy by a month to allow stock clearance.
Delhi used to have a total of 849 liquor vends across the city under the old policy, but now only 639 vends used to operate under the new policy. “Our owner decided to shut down this liquor store after the switch in the excise policy. There is no point of opening the vend for a month, knowing it will be shut down later,” said an employee of the store.
He added that with the shops being shut, more than 40 employees will end up losing their jobs.
A disappointed buyer outside a liquor store at ITO said, “Yesterday, we got to know that the government extended the excise policy for a month, but still there is no alcohol available in the city.”
A Delhi Liquor Traders Association member said this is a complete failure of policy that led to this catastrophe in the city. “The revenue collection under the new policy remains low compared to the old policy and now they have to switch back to the previous policy. This is the second time when the city faced a dry day because of policy failure.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Delhi government issued two circulars, granting L-1 (Indian/country -made liquor) and L-1F (foreign liquor) for the wholesale vends in the capital for the year 2022-23.