Allotment of 314 liquor vends held successfully

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 29

The allotment of 314 licensing units in the district through a draw of lots was made in the presence of senior district administration officials amid tight security at a resort here today.

Deputy Commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha and Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Amritsar Division, Harinderpal Singh were present throughout the process.

Excise officials stated that the auction of 314 licensing units, which include 314 PML (Punjab Made Liquor) vends and 239 IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) vends was held successfully. The Excise Department has allotted 553 liquor vends in total in the district.

The officials of the department stated that a total of 36 applications for the allotment of six liquor zones in the district were received. DETC Harinderpal Singh said that no illegal liquor vends would be allowed to operate in the Amritsar division, which comprises Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts. He said liquor vends in Amritsar district had been allotted for a license fee of Rs 207.52 crore.

The new contractors would take control of the liquor vends in the district from April 1. Even as it was felt that with liquor contractors running losses during the current fiscal year, many of them were not interested in the allotment process this year. The department officials stated that the Amritsar excise division had managed to attract many applications.

“For every zone in Amritsar district, we had six competitors. So we cannot say that the contractors were not interested,” said an official on condition of anonymity.