Grocery shops will now be able to sell liquor in Uttarakhand. The Trivendra Rawat government has amended the excise policy…
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. (Photo: SNS/File)
Grocery shops will now be able to sell liquor in Uttarakhand. The Trivendra Rawat government has amended the excise policy by allowing grocery shops, with annual turnover of Rs 50 lakh, to apply for licence. The shop owner will have to pay a licence fee of Rs 5 lakh for obtaining permission to sell liquor.
The state Cabinet approved the amendment in the excise policy at a meeting in Dehradun on Friday evening. The state government has also reduced bar fee for small hotels.
Now hotels with up to 20 rooms will have to pay licence fee of Rs 3 lakh, instead of Rs 5 lakh. Besides, such hotels will have to renew their licences only once in three years, instead of annually.
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The earlier Congress government had to face anger from the public for putting an undeclared ban on popular liquor brands and promoting a particular distillery that not many people knew of in Uttarakhand.
Excise remains a major revenue earner for the Uttarakhand government. Last year the state government fixed a revenue target of Rs 2310 crore for the excise department.
The BJP government was mooting the idea of implementing the recommendation of the excise department to allow only four liquor shops in a radius of 20 km and that too by one group/firm or individual only. But this was shelved owing to controversy.
For departmental stores the licence fee for selling liquor has been increased from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 Lakh, but the turnover ~ for getting the licence ~slab has been reduced from Rs 5 crore to Rs 50 lakh.
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