High and dry, Himachal hotel industry wants bar licence fee cut

Federation of state hotels and restaurants seeks lifting of mandatory requirement to maintain minimum liquor stock irrespective of sale volume

Operating bars in hotels and restaurants has become unviable due to the high licence fee and mandatory requirement of minimum liquor stock irrespective of sale volume, according to the Federation of Himachal Hotel and Restaurant Association.

Tourist rush at the Ridge in Shimla. Hotel owners of Himachal Pradesh have urged the state government to bring down the bar licence fee as they are faced with losses due to limited clientele and the business being seasonal. (Deepak Sansta/HT file photo)

“Hotels have a limited clientele and the profitability of the bar depends on guests staying in hotels. With a ban on drinking and driving in the larger interest of public safety and local clients rarely visiting hotel bars, business has become unviable. Moreover, the hotel business is seasonal in the state,” Mohinder Seth of the federation said after a meeting in Shimla on Wednesday evening.

The hotel industry is struggling for revival after the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the tourism business for two years.

The federation members said there was a need to do away with the condition of maintaining a minimum quota of liquor for hotels having bar facilities and classify licences into categories. “The bar licence fee for hotels in the rural areas should be nominal,” said Gajender Thakur, the president of the federation.

When contacted, excise and the taxation commissioner Yunus said, “The licence fee slabs for the bar facility in hotels is fixed according to accommodation. In the rural and tribal areas, it is already minimum.”

The federation said tourism licences of hotels and restaurants should be renewed after five years instead of three years.

It said charges for participating in tourism fairs and travel marts in different parts of the country should be reduced from ₹30,000 to ₹10,000 for at least two years. Young participants should be charged only ₹5,000 as an incentive.

Thakur said the federation will submit its suggestions to the government so that provisions can be made to include them in the budget.