HYDERABAD: The State government has increased the non-refundable application fee for liquor shops from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh in the new excise policy that was announced on Thursday. In 2017, the government had increased the fee from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh and earned over Rs 400 crore from over 41,000 applications.
A notification on the allotment of retail liquor shops for licence period 2019-21 was issued by the Revenue Department. The new excise policy will come into effect from November 1, 2019. The number of retail shops, meanwhile, will be retained at present 2,216.
As per the policy, the retail shop excise tax per annum for population up to 5,000 will be Rs 50 lakh. Similarly, a tax of Rs 55 lakh will be collected for a population between 5,000 and 50,000. For population between 50,000 and one lakh, the license rate will be Rs 60 lakh and for that between one lakh and five lakhs, the license fee will be Rs 65 lakh. Further, the license fee will be Rs 85 lakh and Rs 110 lakh for populations between five lakh to 20 lakh and above 20 lakh respectively.
The licensees are permitted to pay two years’ Licence Period Retail Shop Excise Tax in eight equal instalments instead of six instalments as was mandated earlier. A special retail excise tax of Rs 5 lakh per annum will be collected as a one-time collection per licensee without accounting it for the seven-times limit. The retailer’s margin is fixed at 27 per cent on ordinary, 20 per cent on medium and premium varieties of IMFL and FL and 20 per cent on beer.
Telangana Wine Dealers Association President D Venkateswara Rao, said, “The retailer’s margin on beer has been reduced from 25 per cent to 20 per cent. As much as 40 per cent of a retailer’s share of profit is from beer and reducing the same can cause us losses.”