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Punjab cabinet approves excise policy
The cabinet also approved the Punjab State Minor Mineral Policy-2023 to provide sand and gravel at affordable rates to the people of state
Chandigarh : The Punjab cabinet on Friday approved the excise policy for the year 2023-24.
A decision to this effect was taken by the cabinet under the chairmanship of chief minister Bhagwant Mann. A spokesperson of the chief minister’s office said to maintain stability of liquor trade and to continue the reforms, which were initiated last year, the retail sale licence L-2/L-14A are being offered for renewal to the existing retail licensees. Besides, there will be no change in the liquor prices.
The policy aims to collect ₹9,754 crore in 2023-24, an increase of ₹1,004 crore. According to the policy, VAT charged on liquor sold by beer bars, hard bars, clubs and microbreweries have been reduced to 13% plus 10% surcharge.
Transfer of group will be allowed once during the excise year on payment of ₹10 lakh subject to conditions laid down. The fee of annual L-50 permit has been reduced from ₹2,500 to ₹2,000 and for lifetime L-50 permit from ₹20,000 to ₹10,000. The condition that L-50 lifetime will be issued to a person who has been issued annual L-50 permits for three years continuously has been done away with.
Nod to mineral policy
The cabinet also approved the Punjab State Minor Mineral Policy-2023 to provide sand and gravel at affordable rates to the people of state.
According to the spokesperson, the objective of this policy is to ensure that mining of sand and gravel is undertaken in a transparent and legal manner.
According to the policy, mining sites have been divided into two categories --- commercial mining sites and public mining sites. The commercial sites will be grouped into distinct clusters and will be auctioned through e-tender process whereas the public mining sites will be operated by the department manually.
Both sand and gravel will be sold at the pit head price of ₹5.5 per cubic feet. No royalty shall be imposed on excavation of ordinary clay and ordinary earth which is to be used by farmers for activities other than commercial infrastructure projects. Only manual excavation of ordinary earth shall only be permitted for non-commercial projects in the area up to two acres or depth up to three feet, the spokesperson added.
Proposal for restructuring water resources, transport departments
The cabinet also gave nod to the proposal for restructuring of state water resources and transport departments in the larger public interest. During a review of the state water resources department, it was found that there is a need to increase some important posts and abolish those which have become redundant with the passage of time. Based on this, 1,278 new posts have been created, 708 different cadre posts have been declared dying cadre and 957 posts of beldars have also been created.
The cabinet also gave its approval for restructuring of the posts of state transport commissioner, Punjab -- a wing under the transport department. With the restructuring of state transport commissioner, the number of posts will increase.
₹25 crore for Dera Ballan
The cabinet accorded approval for releasing ₹25 crore to Guru Ravidass Bani Adhayayn Centre Committee, Dera Sachkhand Ballan, under Punjab Nirman Programme to address the development needs at the grassroots level. The funds will be released by the district level committee constituted under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner, as per demand, within a month.
The cabinet gave a green signal for sending cases of two life convicts in Punjab jails seeking premature release. After the nod of the cabinet under Article 163 of the Constitution, these special remission/premature release cases will be submitted to the Punjab governor under Article 161 of the constitution.
Box
Key provisions
Excise department to open model shops selling imported and Indian beer and wines and ready to drink alcohol.
Each city and town of the state to have 4-5 such shops. These shops are to be opened on the Delhi pattern. Every group selling liquor in a city or a town would get one such shop. There are four to five such groups in each city or town.
Fee for big players having L-1 licences increased exorbitantly from existing ₹5 crore to ₹45 crore. Big players are those who have sold more than 25 lakh cases of IMFL during a year.
L-50 licence fee slashed to ₹10,000 for house bars.
Fee for army and paramilitary canteens slashed to ₹5 lakh from ₹50 lakh
