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UT struggles to sell liquor vends despite record revenue
The department successfully allotted vends in Sector 22 and Mauli Jagran Colony during the seventh round of e-auction, generating ₹7.76 crore in revenue.
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The UT excise and taxation department saw lukewarm response to its ongoing e-auctions of liquor vends, with only two of the 12 vends up for bidding sold on Thursday.
The department successfully allotted vends in Sector 22 and Mauli Jagran Colony during the seventh round of e-auction, generating ₹7.76 crore in revenue. The remaining 10 unsold vends will be re-auctioned soon.
Earlier, on May 19, only one vend was sold, earning ₹4.50 crore against a reserve price of ₹4.38 crore.
Out of a total of 97 liquor vends, 87 have been auctioned so far. The department expects to earn over ₹600 crore this year from these auctions — a 50% increase from last year. So far, it has earned approximately ₹534 crore, compared to ₹413 crore in 2023, with 10 vends still remaining.
In the fifth round of e-auctions held on May 14, six out of 17 vends were sold, fetching ₹39.60 crore against a reserve price of ₹24.32 crore. The fourth round on May 8 saw 11 vends sold out of 21, bringing in ₹60.76 crore against a reserve price of ₹47.97 crore. On April 29, only seven of 28 vends were sold.
On April 21, 48 liquor vends—whose licences had been cancelled due to non-payment of bank guarantees—were put up for auction. Only 20 found buyers, yielding ₹131 crore against a reserve price of ₹109 crore.
In the initial round held on March 21, the department allotted 96 of the 97 liquor vends, collecting ₹606 crore. However, 48 licences were later cancelled due to non-compliance, and the department earned an additional ₹23 crore by forfeiting the earnest money and security deposits of the defaulters.
