20 liquor vends still unsold: Now, Chandigarh admn slashes reserve price by 35%

Through 10 rounds of auction, being held since March 15 before the new financial year (2023-24) kicked in on April 1, the Chandigarh excise and taxation department has so far managed to sell 75 of the 95 vends in the city

Trying its luck for the 11th time to allot the unsold liquor vends, the UT excise and taxation department has slashed the reserve prices further by up to 35%.

Now, the auction for the remaining 20 liquor vends will be held on May 12. (HT )

Through 10 rounds of auction, being held since March 15 before the new financial year (2023-24) kicked in on April 1, the department has so far managed to sell 75 of the 95 vends in the city.

Now, the auction for the 20 remaining liquor vends will be held on May 12.

In the 10th round of auction, held on May 6, only two of the 22 remaining liquor vends were sold. These are located in Sector 23 and Burail village.

Earlier on May 1, in the ninth round, no buyer came forward for any of the 22 vends, a repeat from the eighth round on April 27. During the seventh auction, UT was able to sell three liquor vends, while in the sixth auction too, no bidders came forward.

Last year, the department had managed to sell 93 of the total 96 vends through seven auctions.

For financial year 2023-24, the department has fixed a revenue target of ₹830 crore from liquor vends’ licence fees. But has so far collected only around ₹400 crore.

Notably, the liquor vend in Dhanas, located near Mullanpur, which fetched the highest bid for the last two years, has failed to attract buyers this time around.

Last year, the vend had received the highest-ever bid of ₹12.78 crore against the reserve price of ₹10.39 crore, whereas in 2021, it had fetched ₹11.55 crore against the reserve price of ₹7.95 crore.

Liquor contractors have maintained that the poor response to the auctions is due to the Punjab excise policy offering more perks than that rolled out by Chandigarh.

Among them is lower VAT, excise fee and licence fee. Besides, UT has also fixed quota at 18 lakh liquor boxes a year, which means unlifted liquor cases will lead to a penalty. The penalty is ₹900 per case for Indian made foreign liquor and ₹3,500 per case for foreign liquor. In contrast, Punjab has an open quota with no compulsion.