The government has approached all reputed liquor companies to provide 180 ml of select brand liquor at ₹99. If the companies agree to the proposal, the government will give them permission to sell their brands in the State.
‘’The government is negotiating with all the reputed companies to provide quality liquor starting at ₹99,” the Minister for Excise, Kollu Ravindra, told The Hindu on Thursday (September 19).
The Minister said that the government was expecting a revenue of around ₹2,000 crore from the licence application fee. It had fixed the application fee as ₹2 lakh. Another about ₹2,000 crore would be collected as licence fee through the allotment of liquor shop licences.
Mr. Ravindra said the licence fee would be in the range of ₹50 lakh to ₹85 lakh. The government would bring separate rules for 12 premium liquor shops to be opened in major cities of the State.
Mukesh Kumar Meena, Principal Secretary, Excise Department | Photo Credit: KVS GIRI
The Principal Secretary, Excise Department, Mukesh Kumar Meena told The Hindu that liquor would be available in three categories — ordinary, medium and premium — in all the liquor shops across the State. In the ordinary segment, each national and international brand company had been requested to provide at least one brand of liquor at ₹99. There were five to six reputed brand companies in the country, he said, and hoped that all of them would provide at least one brand in the ordinary category.
Negotiations were on to provide quality liquor to consumers at the lowest possible price, which would help check illicit liquor menace in the State.
Ordinance
The government would have to promulgate an ordinance before implementing the new policy, as the existing Act would not allow private shops to sell liquor, he explained. The ordinance would be issued in three to four days.
Mr. Meena said that the government was providing instalment facility to pay the licence fee.
Published - September 19, 2024 09:52 pm IST
