Liquor prices set to increase

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 28

Prices of liquor and beer are all set to witness an increase from April 16 as the UT Administrator today approved the new excise policy 2015-2016, under which liquor vends will be sold in clusters.

 Though officials claim an effort has been made to restrict the number of vends in each group, selling vends in clusters would encourage cartels to monopolise the liquor trade. “This can result in an increase in the prices of liquor. But restricting the number of vends in each unit will allow small players to operate,” said an official.

 “The exact percentage increase in the prices of liquor and beer can be calculated once the vends are auctioned,” said the official.

 Under the new policy, to be effective from April 16, 2015, to March 31, 2016, there would be a total of 100 liquor shops divided into 48 clusters. The UT Finance-cum-Excise Secretary, Sarvjit Singh, confirmed the policy had been approved.

In a withdrawal from the last year set-up wherein there were 173 IMFL and country vends that were sold separately, now both the categories have been merged, bringing down the count to 100 units, each unit having two or five liquor vends.

Against last year’s bid money of Rs 121 crore, the UT has fixed the reserve price of all the units at Rs 135 crore. In an exercise to rationalise the reserve fee, the reserve price of the high-demand units has been increased and the reserve price of those less in demand has been decreased in each group.

Though details of the policy are yet to be released, the UT, in a pro-liquor contractor move, has brought down the liquor quota to 75 lakh proof litre. In the previous excise police of 2014-15, the quota was 1.13 crore proof litre for 12 months. “Since during the period of the existing policy, only 75.10 lakh proof litre of liquor quota had been lifted, the same bench mark has been kept in the new policy,” said an official.

Though the exact details have not been released, there has been no substantial increase in excise duty and other taxes.

Reserve price

Against last year’s bid money of Rs121 crore, the UT has fixed the reserve price of all the units at Rs135 crore. In the previous excise police of 2014-15, the quota was 1.13 crore proof litre for 12 months.