Excise Act to be amended to ‘relax’ sale time on special occasions in U.P.

The decision to incorporate an ‘enabling clause’ regarding flexible timings on special occasions appears to have been inspired by the decision of the Uttarakhand government

An amendment will be made to the Excise Act to factor in a special provision incorporated the first time in the new excise policy about relaxing liquor sale timings on special occasions.

The government has reportedly increased profit margins of country liquor sellers too. (For Representation)

The decision to incorporate an ‘enabling clause’ regarding flexible timings on special occasions appears to have been inspired by the decision of the Uttarakhand government which had allowed liquor shops to open well beyond their usual closure time to accommodate the New Year rush.

“On occasions like New Year or Holi eve when the rush is more, this clause would provide flexibility to extend sale timings,” said an official. Liquor pricing too would go up with the price of country-made or ‘desi’ likely to be revised from April—the next fiscal by when the new excise policy, cleared by the state cabinet on Saturday, will come into play.

The government has reportedly increased profit margins of country liquor sellers too. However, the liquor lobby perhaps expected more. “Thankful to the government for increasing profit margin but the increase has largely been offset by a simultaneous hike in licence fee, which is more than the profit margin hike,” said Devesh Jaiswal of UP Liquor Sellers’ Welfare Association.

The government is looking to mop up an estimated revenue of ₹45,000 crore through the new excise policy. To increase its revenue, the government has increased the fee for running the canteen facility at model shops to ₹3 lakh from the present ₹2 lakh with a simultaneous 10% increase on the minimum guarantee quota (MGQ) of country-made liquor.

MGQ is the amount of stock a country liquor seller is required to compulsorily buy from the government. Licence fee and security have been increased for bonded warehouse licenses (BWFL-2A, 2B, 2C) of foreign liquor, beer and wine. The registration and renewal fees of master warehouse have been increased too.

The licence fee for hotel/restaurant and club bar licences has been increased by creating a special category for the authority area of Gautam Budh Nagar, municipal corporation area of Lucknow and Ghaziabad within 5 km in their vicinity, whether urban or rural. There is no increase in the licence fee for other categories of bar licences.