No auction of liquor vends this fiscal

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 19

For the first time in a decade, Punjab has not auctioned its liquor vends for the coming financial year. All vends have been allotted to the same vendors who had won the bids for allotment during the current fiscal.

Though this is in accordance with the state government’s Excise Policy for 2021-22, aimed at renewal of the licences of existing vends, it seems that considering the huge profits netted by the liquor licencees during this financial year, the contractors have agreed to increase liquor sales in order to retain the vends.

This year, in spite of a lockdown for almost two-and-a-half months, the licencees have managed to reap in good profits. Though the initial target of excise revenue was Rs 6,250 crore, it was later scaled down to Rs 5.433 crore. Figures available from the Excise Department show that the total excise revenue till February this year is Rs 5,173 crore, with another Rs 1,000 crore to be added for the ongoing month of March, officials in Excise Department said.

The policy of licence renewal was there in the previous excise policies too, but licencees would seek renewal of licence for only profitable vends. There would be no takers for the non-profitable vends and the department would have to auction these vends by lowering the licence fee. For the current financial year, too, there were no takers for renewal of licences for 40 per cent of vends, which were later auctioned at reduced licence fees, many after the lockdown period ended in May 2020.

A Venu Prasad, Financial Commissioner, Excise and Taxation, Punjab, says that licence holders of all 656 groups (group is a single licencing unit) had applied for renewal of the licences, which has been done.

“We are looking at a net revenue increase of 15 per cent for the next year, mainly because the department has cracked down on illegal distilleries and plugged smuggling of liquor in Punjab from other states. This has led to increase in sales volumes from the licensed vends, and made these profitable,” he said.

A section of liquor contractors, however, say they have been forced to retain the non-profitable vends in order to keep the profitable vends allotted to them in 2020-21, through the renewal policy.