UT gets only 6 bids for 36 liquor vends in 3rd round of auction

Chandigarh, March 23

The UT Excise and Taxation Department has received only six bids for allotment of remaining 36 liquor vends in the third round of auction held here today.

An official said the bids could not be opened as they were yet to receive an approval for the opening of financial bids for the allotment of liquor vends.

So far, the department has been able to allot only 61 liquor vends out of 97 to be allotted under the Excise Policy 2024-25. However, one of the allotted vends has been surrendered by its contractor. As many as 37 vends are still unsold. The six bids received today were for the liquor vends located in Sectors 11, 18, 40 and 41 and Maloya.

Even after reducing the licence free by 5% for liquor vends with reserve price of Rs 5 crore and above and 3% for vends with reserve price below Rs 5 crore, no major buyers were attracted towards the offer, said Sachit Jaiswal, advocate, Excise and Taxation.

On the other hand, the Punjab Excise Department received nearly 35,000 applications for allotment of liquor vends under the lottery system and collected approximately Rs 260 crore as fee in the first attempt, he said, and appealed to the UT Administration to reduce the licence fee so that it could attract more buyers and sell the remaining vends.

During the second auction on March 15, the department was able to allot only 10 liquor vends of 46 remaining units. It had earned a revenue of Rs 38.18 crore against the reserve price of Rs 36.79 crore — an increase of 3.77% (over the reserve price).

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 then. 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.