With the favouring changes in Haryana's Excise and Taxation policy for the year 2017-2018, the liquor vends allotted to retailers during the bidding process have been allowed to store both IMFL as well as country-made liquor for sale.

Under the policy, the department has categorised liquor vends into zones between Gurgaon East and West areas.

As per the new policy, a license holder can open maximum six liquor vends with two sub vends, following the Supreme Court's order and excise departments norms.

Under the earlier policy for 2016-2017, the department had allotted three vends in one zone.

Sources have said the decision was taken with a view to centralise revenue generation through limited players having high capacity.

Deputy Commissioner of Excise and Taxation of Gurgaon Aruna Singh, who heads east part of Gurgaon, said as per the new policy, the liquor traders are entitled to sell both IMFL and country-made liquors in an individual vend, which is new initiative.

“We have already directed the traders to open the new vends following the Supreme Court's fresh guidelines about distance measurement based on motorise length of 500 metres and excise and taxation norms,” Singh said.

Following the apex court's decision on December 15, 2016 to measure liquor vends falling under 500 metres from national and state highways, the depratment carried out the measurement process for motorable distance from the edge and nearest point of service lanes of highways to vend.

43 liquor vends falling within the 500-metre distance were closed as their licenses were cancelled on March 31, 2017, she added.

There are total 41 zones declared by new excise policy with 19 falling under east area and 22 under west area of Gurgaon. This time the liquor vends will go till 344 numbers in Gurgaon, while in last year there were 323 in the city.

The 19 zones located in east area are Valley view, DLF-1, Sector-4, 29, 56,31, 47, Galleria, Golf Course, Golf Suit sector-44, South City-II, Pioneer zone, Badshahpur, Bhondsi rural, Sohna Urban, Rural, MG Road and others.

HC Dahiya, Deputy Commissioner of Excise and Taxation of Gurgaon is heading west area 22 zones.

“The Cyber Hub area which is falling under west zone has highest bid of Rs.56 crore against the reserve price of Rs.41 crore set by excise department. As far as the east area is concerned, there are 19 zones coming under it and maximum bidding of Rs.39 crore for sector 31 zone. Lowest bidding for west and east areas are from Bilaspur and Sohna Rural with Rs.6.30 crore and Rs.3.12 crore, respectively,” the officer said.

“The Cyber Hub zone comes under 500 meters and hence the decision of apex court bring headache for the owner of that zone, while some pubs and bars in sector-29 comes under 500 meters distance and some left out which is a matter of measuring their distances. Some pubs like 'Chillis grill and bar' at Ambiance Mall and Hotel Queen Pearl come under 500 metres have been closed,” Dahiya said.

With pubs and bars owners started submitting affidavits with excise department for the review, he said.

“We are waiting for some more affidavits of this kind following which they would undergo verification by excise department. If, they fall beyond 500 meters, they would get NOC from the department, while bars coming within the distance will be shut forever,” Dahiya said.

There is no limitation for liquor vends to stock IMFL and domestic liquor. The excise department has given a flexibility of for them to stock IMFL and domestic liquor according to the demand of the area.

“Suppose, liquor vends in DLF city or cyber hub have huge demand of IMFL, they are entitled to stock accordingly. Similarly, domestic liquors have huge demand in rural areas like Sohna, Pataudi and Maneser. The excise department has set minimum reserve price of particular area accordingly,” said Dahiya.

The excise department has identified 65 bars in west Gurgaon and 50 in east Gurgaon coming within the distance of 500 meters. There is no point of measuring them further as the department has already measured their distances, Dahiya said.