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Most liquor vends in district shut as contractors oppose new excise policy
With a section of liquor contractors opposing new excise policy and the other section involved in talks with the government for ‘reducing’ the tender cost of liquor vends, the majority of the liquor vends in the district remained shut on Friday.
With a section of liquor contractors opposing the new excise policy and the other section involved in talks with the government for ‘reducing’ the tender cost of liquor vends, the majority of the liquor vends in the district remained shut on Friday.
The previous contracts of the liquor vends expired on June 30 and new contracts are being allotted through the tender process under the new excise policy floated by the state government.
As per the officials of the excise and taxation department, there are 36 groups of liquor vends in the district comprising over 780 liquor vends and only 12 groups were allotted till Friday afternoon.
While the section of contractors opposing the new excise policy have moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court and are waiting for the next hearing of the case scheduled for July 5, a number of contractors were also in talks with the officials seeking a reduction in tender cost for allotment of vends.
One of the liquor contractors requesting anonymity stated that the government has increased the tender cost for availing the liquor contracts drastically. Now the department is marginally reducing the tender cost to attract the contractors, but still, the cost is very high. It is not feasible for the contractors to avail the contracts, as it will result in losses. The state government is now trying to pressurise the contractors through the excise department, he alleged.
Earlier a group of contractors from different parts of the country had also announced to boycott the new excise policy stating that the government is working to allegedly create a monopoly in the market and benefit the big players but increasing the number of vends in one circle and increasing the cost of availing the contract.
They stated that under the previous policy, there are around 7-8 vends in one group which is allotted by the government and the fee for availing that group was around ₹7-8 crore. Now the number of vends in one group has been increased to 35-40 and the fee has been increased to over ₹35 crore. The small contractors with limited funds are being pushed out of the race.
Another liquor contractor, Varinder Kumar stated a section of contractors is opposing the new policy while a number of contractors have also got the liquor vends allotted to them on the terms and conditions of the new policy.
Liquor vends see huge rush
With contractors slashing down the liquor rates on the last day of their contracts on Thursday (June 30), a heavy rush was witnessed at the vends on Thursday night. The contracts usually expire on March 31, but the state government had earlier extended the previous contracts till June 30 this time.
Additional commissioner (excise) Sandeep Rishi said contractors are now turning forward for getting the vends allotted and 26 out of 36 circles in Ludhiana district have been allotted. As the contractors had raised objections over alleged tender costs for availing contracts, the department has also reduced the tender cost by around 9.7% in a few cases after considering the situation. The vendors have already started opening the vends which have been allotted to them and the time period for allotting the remaining 10 circles has been extended till Saturday evening.
A section of the liquor contractors had moved the court, but no stay has been ordered over the allotment of contracts and the department will submit its reply in court on next date of hearing. .
