UT Excise Dept to hold 8th round of auction of liquor vends on May 10

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 4

For the allotment of remaining liquor vends, the UT Excise and Taxation Department will hold the 8th round of auction on May 10.

Although, the numbers of liquor vends have been sold more than last year, the department has had to reduce the reserve price of the liquor vends that have still not been sold compared to the first auction.

Now, only 11 liquor vends are left, but their reserve price has come down as compared to the first auction held in March. This is the money that the excise department gets as licensing fees. Last year, the department had to auction the remaining liquor vends 20 times, but even then there were 18 liquor vends which were not sold and their quota of liquor had to be further distributed among the allotted liquor vends.

This year, a total of 97 liquor vends were to be allotted in the Excise Policy 2024-25, out of which 86 liquor vends have been sold so far. But still liquor vends in some the big markets have remained unsold. This includes markets in Sector 9 and Sector 42 and Attawa. The liquor vends in both the markets had earlier earned a good revenue for the administration, but this time, no one has bought the liquor vends.

In fact, this time, the liquor vends in both the markets have been clubbed such as two liquor vends have to be opened in the market of Sector 9, but only one license has to be given for both of them, due to which the reserve price is still more than Rs 10 crore, while for Sector 42 and Attawa, three liquor vends have been clubbed and a license will be given, for which the reserve price is now more than Rs 11.61 crore.

In its first round of auction held on March 7 for the allotment of liquor vends under the 2023-24 Excise Policy, the department was able to sell only 51 out of a total 97 vends. On March 7, the department had earned Rs 243.84 crore against the reserve price of Rs 218.66 crore — an increase of 11.53% over the reserve price and 10% over the last year’s licence fee.

For the financial year 2024-25, the department has decided to give 84 licences and increase the number of vends from 95 to 97. The total reserve price of all these vends has been fixed at Rs 452.29 crore. For the first time, the UT decided that any liquor vend remaining unsold will be run by Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO).

Having failed to allot 18 vends, out of a total of 95, despite 20 rounds of auctions under the Excise Policy 2023-24, the department has reduced the reserve prices of certain liquor vends in the 2024-25 policy.

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