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Revenue challenges pour in again: Only 51 liquor vends sold in first auction in Chandigarh
In a haunting reminder of last year, the Chandigarh excise and taxation department was able to sell only a little over half (51) of the total 97 vends available under the 2024-25 Excise Policy, in the first round of auction held at the UT Guest House, Sector 6, on Thursday
The gaping hole in UT’s excise earnings is set to become larger with contractors once again staying away from investing in Chandigarh’s liquor vends.
In a haunting reminder of last year, the UT excise and taxation department was able to sell only a little over half (51) of the total 97 vends available under the 2024-25 Excise Policy, in the first round of auction held at the UT Guest House, Sector 6, on Thursday.
From the auction of these 51 vends, the department earned ₹243 crore against the reserve price of ₹218 crore.
In financial year 2023-24, the department had failed to sell 18 of city’s 95 liquor vends even after 20 auctions with multiple reserve price cuts. In the very first auction in March 2023, the department found few takers, selling just 43 of the total 95 liquors, a trend that continued through the year, leading to a revenue deficit of ₹150 crore against the goal of ₹830 crore.
To tackle this, for the upcoming financial year, which begins on April 1, the department had announced a slew of relaxations for liquor contractors, including lower reserve prices. Yet, 46 liquor vends got no bids.
Dhanas vend goes for highest bid of ₹9.17 crore
Among the 51 vends auctioned, the one in Dhanas got the highest bid of ₹9.17 crore against the reserve price of ₹8.32 crore.
Having remained unsold last year, the vend received two bids this time. In 2023-24, its reserve price was fixed at ₹11.53 crore, which was brought down to ₹8.32 crore for 2024-25. Before 2023, this vend had received the highest bids for three consecutive years.
The lowest bid of ₹1.81 crore was received for the liquor vend at Kaimbala village that had a reserve price of ₹1.60 crore.
A senior officer of the excise department, meanwhile, said the response in the first round was satisfactory: “We were able to sell 51 liquor vends and are hopeful that in the next few rounds, all vends will be allotted.”
However, Darshan Singh Kler, president of the Wine Contractors’ Association, the department will witness a repeat from last year due to the high excise duty and VAT.
For financial year 2024-25, the department has decided to give 84 licences and increase the number of vends from 95 to 97. The total reserve price of all these vends has been fixed at ₹452.29 crore.
For the first time, UT has also decided that any liquor vend remaining unsold will be run by the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO).
