Come April, liquor to cost more in Haryana

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 4

Boozers will have to shell out more for every bottle of liquor they consume in Haryana from April 1 with the state Cabinet giving its nod, affecting a “marginal” hike of 5 to 10 per cent under the new Excise policy here today, while raising the bar licence fee. 

Also, the rate of VAT on liquor has been enhanced from 4 per cent to 8 per cent with surcharge and the import duty on alcohol to be used for industrial purposes has been reduced from Rs 6 per proof litre (PL) to Rs 3 per PL. Unlike the last policy that was made for two years, this policy will be applicable for a year only.

While the price of beer -- strong and light -- will go up by nearly Rs 5 per 650 ml, the cost of a bottle of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) will go up by about Rs 20 to Rs 200 per quart and pint, depending upon the brand. 

The rates of country liquor will go up by Rs 5 to Rs 20 depending on the size of the bottle. Announcing the policy after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu said that the number of vends and the quota of liquor will remain unchanged.

“The total vends are unchanged at 3,500 (2,265 country liquor and 1,235 IMFL vends) and there has been no increase in the quota of liquor as well. The quota of country liquor will be 900 lakh PL and of IMFL 500 lakh PL,” Abhimanyu said.

Toeing the line of the previous Congress government, the new policy says that no vends would be opened in panchayats which have passed resolutions against the same. As many as 27 such panchayats have been given “exemption”. For the purpose of allotment, the vends will be clubbed into groups of a maximum number of three vends of either country liquor or IMFL as was the policy under the Congress rule. 

However, departing from the existing practice of 75 per cent open quota and 25 per cent fixed quota, the new policy has increased the fixed quota to 40 per cent in a bid to ensure at least 3 per cent sale for the existing 13 distilleries of Haryana. Apart from this, e-tendering has been introduced for the first time for allotment of retail outlets.

While the participation fee for the bidders has been reduced from Rs 25,000  per vend to Rs 10,000 per vend to encourage participation, the percentage of fixed quota of country liquor has been enhanced from 25 per cent to 40 per cent to be equally divided amongst all the distilleries.Wholesale licence of country liquor (L-13) will be granted both to retail licencees as well as the distilleries. 

In the case of wholesale license of IMFL (L-1), the licences will be granted to the retail licencees giving maximum revenue. The Excise and Taxation Department will hire some locations for setting up liquor vends having high revenue potential in Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) areas and Haryana tourist complexes for which the rent will be paid by the department.