No takers for 41 Chandigarh liquor vends, reserve price reduced 3-5%

Tribune News Service

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, March 23

Eliciting a poor response to the two liquor vend auctions recently, the UT Excise and Taxation Department has reduced the reserve price of the remaining outlets by 3 to 5 per cent for a third auction to be held on March 27.

In the first auction held on March 15 to allot vends under the Excise Policy 2023-24, the department could sell only 43 of the 95 vends. Similarly, in the second auction on March 21, only 11 of the 52 vends went under the hammer.

Uniform rates in tricity to blame

• Excise Dept looks to generate Rs 830 cr next fiscal via liquor vend auction, but with poor response to 2 auctions, vends may go unsold
• UT has even failed to achieve liquor revenue target for current fiscal due to uniform liquor prices in tricity
• Liquor rates in UT were on a par with Mohali & Panchkula in 2022; new Punjab excise policy has also impacted auction
• Contractor says 35% cut in reserve price will not make much impact, unless department reduces excise duty and VAT

To find buyers for the remaining 41 vends, the department has now reduced the reserve price, said an official, adding the Punjab Excise Renewal Policy had impacted the auction in the city.

A liquor contractor said a reduction of 3-5 per cent in the reserve price would not make much impact, unless the department reduced the excise duty and VAT.

In the March 15 auction, the department had generated a revenue of Rs 221.59 crore against the reserve price of Rs 202.35 crore, registering a 9.5% increase over the reserve price. The highest bid of Rs 11.65 crore was received for the Palsora liquor vend, against the reserve price of Rs 9.60 crore. In the second auction, the department netted Rs 54.85 crore against the reserve price of Rs 51.27 crore, nearly Rs 3.57 crore more than the reserve price, registering an increase of 6.98%.

For the 2023-24 fiscal, the department aims to generate Rs 830 crore in the form of licence fee by auctioning off liquor vends.

The UT has even failed to achieve liquor revenue target for the current 2022-23 fiscal, primarily due to the introduction of uniform liquor prices in the tricity. The UT Administration is now staring at unsold liquor vends in the next fiscal, further denting its excise earnings.

Rates of liquor in Chandigarh were on a par with Mohali and Panchkula in 2022. The Dhanas liquor vend, which had fetched the highest bid for the past two years, has failed to find takers in both auctions.

Last year, the vend had received the highest-ever bid of Rs12.78 crore, against the reserve price of Rs 10.39 crore, whereas in 2021, it had gone for record Rs 11.55 crore, against the reserve price of Rs 7.95 crore.

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