Round II: Only 11 of 52 liquor vends auctioned off

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 21

The UT Excise and Taxation Department yet again got a rude shock as only 11 of the 52 remaining liquor vends were auctioned in the second round today. In the last auction held on March 15, 43 vends of the total 95 were auctioned.

In the second auction, the UT Administration earned a revenue of Rs 54.85 crore against a reserve price of Rs 51.27 crore, which is nearly Rs 3.57 crore higher (6.98%).

In the auction, the highest bid of nearly Rs 7,56,90,000 was received for the vend located at Khuda Lahora, which was barely Rs 5,000 more than the reserve price of Rs 7,56,85,329. The second highest vend was auctioned in Sector 37D for Rs 7,37,00,019, against a reserve price of Rs 6,20,86,481.

The liquor vend in Sector 20 fetched Rs 2.45 crore, against a reserve price of Rs 2.32 crore. In the first auction, the department could auction only 43 liquor vends, collecting a total revenue of Rs 221.59 crore against a reserve price of Rs 202.35 crore, registering a 9.5% increase.

Reacting to lukewarm response to the auction, a contractor blamed it on the Excise Policy of Punjab saying there was only 1% excise duty and VAT on liquor, against the minimum exercise duty in UT of Rs 445 per case to Rs 2,500 per case on IMFL. He said rates of liquor in UT were on a par with both Mohali and Panchkula.

The liquor vend at Dhanas, located near Mullanpur, which fetched the highest bid in the past two years failed to find takers yet again.

Last year, the Dhanas liquor vend had received the highest-ever bid of Rs 12.78 crore against the reserve price of Rs 10.39 crore, whereas in 2021, the vend had received the highest bid of Rs 11.55 crore, against a reserve price of Rs7.95 crore.