Chandigarh Admn to unveil new excise policy in March
Revenue target likely to be increased to Rs 1,000 cr
The UT Excise and Taxation Department is set to release the 2026–27 excise policy in the first week of March. According to officials, the draft of the policy is in the final stages of approval.
The process of policy formulation had begun in December last year, during which the department had invited suggestions from liquor traders as well as the general public.
Several new provisions are being introduced in the upcoming policy, alongside a significant increase in the revenue target. For the next financial year, the department has planned to set a target of collecting around Rs 1,000 crore through liquor licences, excise duty and value added tax (VAT), said the officials.
Despite various challenges in the current financial year, the department has witnessed a rise in excise revenue. The officials said although liquor shop auctions had to be conducted multiple times due to various setbacks, the overall revenue had increased. One of the key focus areas of the new policy will be to prevent repeated disruptions in the auctioning and operation of liquor shops. In the ongoing financial year, several liquor traders had failed to deposit licence fee within the stipulated time, leading to repeated sealing and unsealing of shops. In many cases, licences were eventually surrendered, forcing the department to re-auction outlets, which caused delays in revenue collection.
To address this issue, the department is considering the introduction of stricter provisions in the new policy. The officials indicated that a proposal was under consideration to permanently blacklist liquor traders who repeatedly default on licence fee payment after securing licences in Chandigarh. Under the proposed provision, traders would be barred from participating in future liquor shop auctions if they failed to deposit fee beyond a specified number of times.
The proposed measures will help ensure greater compliance, reduce administrative hurdles and bring stability to the excise system, said the officials.
The department had set a target to generate Rs 800 crore in the Excise Policy 2025-26. It had reduced the reserve price for allotment of liquor vends in the current Excise Policy, as 18 units remained unsold in the previous financial year. In the current financial year, the number of liquor vends were increased from 95 to 97. The total reserve price of all these vends was fixed at Rs 452.29 crore. Even after increasing the number of vends by two, the reserve price was reduced by Rs 33.83 crore compared to the previous fiscal year.
After several rounds of auctions, five liquor vends remained unsold in the current fiscal year. The officials said efforts were on to meet the revenue target of Rs 800 this financial year.
