Liquor auction yields little returns

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,March 21

The new Excise Policy appears to have backfired with officials failing to sell liquor units in the first round of auctions which commenced at Baddi and Solan yesterday.

With auctions in Shimla district too fetching no returns today, they are treading cautiously in Sirmaur district which are slated to take place tomorrow.

Since the department has enhanced the licence fee by 15 per cent despite the closure of a large chunk of liquor vends lying within a 500 m periphery of national and state highways, the contractors are not coming forward to bid. A similar situation has been witnessed in Solan and Baddi excise districts and the first phase of auctions had failed to sell even 50 per cent of the liquor units which accounts for good business.

A section of contractors said the state should have adopted the excise policy of Punjab where the quota of Indian-made foreign liquor has been reduced by 20 per cent and retail groups will now be increased from the earlier 14 to 25.

Even the number of retail units has been reduced by 600 in view of the fact that a major chunk of the liquor vends along state and national highways within a 500 m periphery have been done away with in view of the apex court directions.

The most significant step is that the supplies to the L-1 licensee, which pertains to wholesale, can be made directly instead of the earlier arrangement of taking them from the L-1A.

Additional Commissioner KK Sharma said they were trying to relocate the closed vends so that no loss would be suffered and an exercise had been undertaken by the field officials to look for suitable locations. He said they were hopeful that auctions would fetch good results in Sirmaur district tomorrow.