Bars to open till 3 am in Gurugram, Faridabad, Panchkula

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20

Moving a step ahead of Delhi and Chandigarh, Haryana has allowed bars in Gurugram, Faridabad and Panchkula districts to serve liquor till 3 am. Bars in Delhi and Chandigarh function till 1 am.

Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, who holds charge of the Excise and Taxation Department, gave this information here today after a Cabinet meeting.

He said bars in Gurugram, Faridabad and Panchkula districts would be allowed to serve liquor till 3 am on payment of Rs 10 lakh per hour by bars along with licence fee after the stipulated time of 1 am. “This has been done to compete with Delhi and Chandigarh and increase the state’s revenue,” he asserted.

The policy was approved by the Cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Meanwhile, beer and wine are set to be cheaper from April 1, when the Excise Policy for 2020-21 will come into force. There will be a mixed trend in prices of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and country liquor.

With reduction in excise duty by Rs 10 per bulk litre (BL) on all categories of beer and wine, their prices are set to come down.

The duty on beer with alcoholic content of between 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent has been reduced from Rs 50 per BL to Rs 40 per BL.

The duty on beer with alcoholic content of more than 5.5 per cent has been reduced from Rs 55 per BL to Rs 45 per BL.

A new category of super mild beer has been created with alcoholic content of up to 3.5 per cent. The duty on super mild beer has been fixed at Rs 35 per BL.

“With the introduction of a new super mild category beer, emphasis is on promotion of healthy drinking habits with low alcoholic content,” said Dushyant.

Excise duty on country liquor 500 has been increased from Rs 44 per proof litre (PL) to Rs 60 per PL.

Excise duty on country liquor 650 has been increased from Rs 54 per PL to Rs 66 per PL, which means that country liquor prices may increase slightly. With excise duty on IMFL remaining the same, there is going to be hardly any change in IMFL prices.

Pegging revenue from excise at Rs 7,500 crore in 2020-21 compared to between Rs 6,600 crore and Rs 6,700 crore this financial year, Dushyant said the number of vends per zone had been reduced from six to two to encourage more competition.

He said the quota of IMFL in the state had been reduced from 650 lakh PL to 550 lakh PL while no change had been made in the quota of country liquor, retained at 1,050 lakh PL. The wholesale licence for imported foreign liquor can now be obtained by any firm with a payment of Rs 1 crore as licence fee.

The licence fee in five-star hotels has been reduced from Rs 45 lakh per annum to Rs 25 lakh per annum. The licence fee for a bar in four-star hotels has been reduced from Rs 38 lakh to Rs 22.5 lakh.

The licence fee for a bar in three-star hotels has been reduced from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 15 lakh across the state, except in Gurugram and Faridabad. The number of liquor vends in the state has been increased from 2,500 to 2,600.

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