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Excise dept seeks police help to crack down on illegal pubs
Gurugram's excise department has requested assistance from the local police force in its efforts to close down illegal pubs, bars and restaurants operating without a valid licence. Searches were carried out on 10 such establishments on Wednesday evening, with liquor stocks, inspection books, liquor storage rooms and licences checked. The department has formed special teams to carry out further searches on Thursday night, particularly at establishments operating until morning, to ensure they possess the required additional liquor licence to stay open late.
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The excise department on Thursday sought help from Gurugram police to crack down on illegal pubs, bars and restaurants that are operating without a valid licence.
This comes a day after HT reported that at least 20 establishments on Golf Course Road and in Sector 29 are operating illegally.
A senior excise and taxation officer said they conducted searches at establishments in Sector 29 on Wednesday night and found violations at two outlets. “We have written to police on Thursday to register cases against the owners of these outlets as they have violated the Excise Act and are operating illegally,” he said, asking not to be named.
Excise officials said they searched at least 10 pub/bars and clubs on Wednesday night and perused the liquor stock register, inspection book, liquor storage room and licence of the outlets. “We checked the liquor stock and matched it against their purchase order.We also collected a few bottles to check the holograms and ensure that these bottles were issued by the excise department,” a second excise official said, asking not to be named.
The department said it has formed special teams to conduct searches on Thursday night as well, especially in outlets that run until morning, and to ascertain whether they have the requisite additional liquor licence needed to stay open late into the night.
To serve alcohol, an establishment owner has to apply for L4 and L5 liquor licences. If the owner plans to keep the pub or bar open till 2am, an annual fee of ₹20 lakh is to be paid for the licence. For establishments that want to stay open till 8am, an additional ₹18 lakh (over and above ₹20 lakh) is required to be paid. Moreover, if an owner opts to operate an additional point (an additional space), (s)he has to pay a fee of ₹3.6 lakh per year.
Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, former district bar association president, wrote to excise and taxation commissioner levelling allegations of evasion of liquor licence fee and excise revenue in “connivance” with excise officials.
He said he has filed another RTI (right to information) plea on Thursday to ascertain the number of outlets that are still running illegally. “The basements are meant only for storage but many outlets are running microbreweries and bars in these spaces. Many have only taken a liquor licence and are using additional points for free causing revenue loss to the government,” he said.
Explaining how these outlets operate, Bhardwaj said the outlet first applies for a fresh licence and deposit the fee through challan , demand draft or cheque for the fiscal quarter.
Bhardwaj said in Gurugram outlets start serving liquor without receiving the licence and one quarter is operated without paying any fee. “The demand draft submitted is either cancelled or adjusted for the next quarter. Present quarter is ending on June 22 and many have not even applied to renew liquor licences. On Saturday, police raided an outlet and found liquor was being served illegally and additional points were being operated without paying the additional fee,” he said.
The licence fee is deposited quarterly as per the norms for L 4 and L 5 licence. For additional licence to operate till 8am and for running an additional point, a one-time annual fee for each has to be paid in advance.
Many outlet owners who pay the fee regularly are also angry with establishments that run till morning without paying the annual fee. They said these illegally run outlets have prominent display boards outside their restaurants, pub and bars announcing that they are open through the night; yet no action is taken against them.
“It’s very simple, excise has a list of outlets who have a licence and everyone else is operating illegally. Even so, why have they not sealed those outlets? Many outlets have only taken a licence to run restaurants but are serving alcohol without paying the fee, causing huge losses to the exchequer. Also, they are not paying GST despite charging the same from customers. This scam requires investigation and the computer systems should be checked to know their sales and taxes collected,” said Arvind Kumar, who runs a restaurant in Sector 15.
