Chandigarh, January 19
A reduction in the minimum price of liquor, a cut of Rs 10 in excise duty for defence personnel, abolishing of the licence for serving liquor at parties and the sale of wine at shopping malls are some of the features of Haryana's excise policy for 2007-08, which was approved by the Cabinet here today.
The reduction in the minimum sale price of liquor should lead to lower prices next year.
The state hopes the excise policy will yield Rs 1,325 crore as against Rs 1,150 crore likely to be collected during the current financial year.
According to the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the new policy intends to consolidate the gains of last year, when the trade was broadbased and the entry of new players was facilitated to create more job opportunities.
The number of vends has been
reduced from 4,400 to 4,000. However, each country liquor vend will be allowed to open two sub-vends on the payment of 5 per cent additional licence fee. The reduction in excise duty for defence personnel from Rs 32.25 per proof litre (ppl) to Rs 22.50 ppl will result in a loss of about Rs 2 crore per annum. Export duty on liquor sold outside the state has been reduced by 50 per cent. This has been done to promote the domestic liquor industry.
The minimum retail sale price of country liquor now will be Rs 55(quart), Rs 30 (pint) and Rs 15 (nip) against the present minimum price of Rs 70, Rs 40 and Rs 20, respectively. The minimum retail sale price of IMFL will be Rs 100, Rs 55 and Rs 30 as against the present price of Rs 110, Rs 60 and Rs 35 for quarts, pints and nips, respectively. No maximum sale price has been fixed.
The vends will continue to be allotted through draw of lots and not auction. The application form, which can also be downloaded from the Excise Department's website, will cost Rs 5,000. Along with the application form, a brochure containing details of the liquor vends with their licence fee, location, quota and the command area for allotment will also be available.
In a major change from last year, the categorisation of vends for fixing the licence fee has been dispensed with. The new policy only indicates the licence fee depending on the location, profitability, the command area, population and other factors. No official of the department will be permitted to apply, directly or indirectly, for liquor
vends. Those vends for which there are no takers and cannot be allotted at the time of draw of lots, will again be advertised for inviting applications and, following the same procedure, will be allotted at the earliest.
The liquor quota of both country liquor and Indian made foreign liquor(IMFL) has been increased by about 10 per cent. A provision of 15 per cent additional quota at the same duty and another 15 per cent quota, to be known as incentive quota, on the payment of high excise duty at the rate of Rs 15 ppl has also been made. Earlier, a contractor could lift 50 per cent additional quota without any extra levy and 25 per cent quota on the payment of an additional licence fee of Rs 10 ppl.
There is no change in excise duty. However, import duty of Rs 2 per bulk litre (BL) on denatured ethanol used for automobile fuel has been abolished and permit fee has been reduced from Rs 3 per BL to Re 1 per BL.
The policy introduces the concept of command area, particularly for country liquor vends in the rural areas. The rural country liquor vends will also be able to sell beer in areas where there is no IMFL vend.
The Haryana distilleries will equally share 75 per cent of the country liquor quota, while the rest of the quota will be determined by market forces. This has been done to introduce competition among them so that quality is maintained. Earlier, the free quota was 10 per cent.
