In Delhi, 11 out of a total of 32 zonal liquor retailers have surrendered their license permits due to heavy losses in the liquor business after the changed policy, which has created unfair competition in the liquor business for them.
Many posh areas of Delhi are facing a shortage of liquor supply, as many authorized shops have been shut down, while south Delhi facing the worst-hit liquor shortage.
“The barriers in the new policy and its faulty implementation have led to outlets shutting down across the city. Areas like Cannaught Place, Saket, Green Park, and other parts of south Delhi are facing the liquor crisis,” said a source from the industry.
“While the policy was good, there were faults at the implementation level which led to this pathetic situation,” said Vinod Giri, Director General of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC).
He further said that “the number of shops in each zone is high. The policy allowed 27 liquor vends in each of the 32 zones, which is not fair.”
Along with his statement, he mentioned the ongoing policy has become a challenging task to overcome for the people involved in the liquor business. As a higher number of liquor shops are making business difficult for them.
With an average reserve price of approximately Rs 225 crore per zone, the reserve price for these zones added up to nearly Rs 7,000 crore. However, the Delhi government earned about Rs 9,000 crore through competitive bidding.
Talking about the new excise policy, Giri said apart from liquor policy drawbacks, the protest staged by the center ruling party and its allies had impacted many sellers negatively at the time of the new liquor policy rollout.
Staged protests across the city at the time of the scheme rollout, made the transition slower for the new policy, additionally, the vendor was already facing losses as they got their license through the bidding process.
“Due to the new excise verification process added by the government to the already existing
rules, the vendors had to bear more losses as it delayed the opening of the liquor outlets,” said Giri.