Punjab liquor vends stay shut as traders insist on excise policy change
The state government has pegged the annual revenue from the sale of liquor at Rs 6,200 crore, which comes to over Rs 16 crore a day.
It has been over a week since the lockdown 3.0 started in the country allowing opening of vends, liquor traders in Punjab have not opened their shops even as the state was among the first to make the demand to boost its excise revenue.
The majority of vends have remained shut (since March 23) as traders are waiting for changes in the excise policy to accommodate their concerns. They are demanding to compensate them for the period during which vends remained closed due to the lockdown. They are also demanding changes in the policy to link revenue collection with the sale of liquor instead of the minimum guaranteed revenue on the basis of fixed quota in the original policy.
Sarabjit Singh, a liquor contractor in Tarn Taran, said, “We have paid revenue to the government from March 2019 to March 31, 2020. However, the lockdown was ordered on March 22, 2020. The fee collected by the government from March 22 to March 31 this year should be returned.”
The state government has pegged the annual revenue from the sale of liquor at Rs 6,200 crore, which comes to over Rs 16 crore a day.
The Punjab cabinet on Monday authorised chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh to take decision on changes in the state’s excise policy in view of impact of Covid-19 and the lockdown.
Assistant excise and taxation commissioner (Bathinda) RK Malhotra said they have not received any communication yet regarding changes in the policy.
There are 5,800 liquor vends in Punjab.
Varinder Sharma, a Ludhiana-based liquor trader, said, “We want to cooperate with the government and are ready to bear part of financial losses. But the traders can’t be made to suffer the entire loss due to the prevailing situation.”
Anil Mahajan, who runs liquor business in Doaba, said, “We will have lesser hours to open vends under these circumstances, which too will impact our sales.”
An official in the chief minister’s office (CMO) said the excise and taxation department is expected to come up with a proposal of a relaxation to liquor vend owners on Wednesday.
Vendors say no to home delivery
The traders said the home delivery of liquor is not feasible as they do not have the required staff to do so and the government has ordered that only 2-litre liquor can be delivered to one household.
On Sunday, Congress councillor and cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu’s wife Mamta Ashu had also urged the CM to reconsider the decision to allow home delivery of liquor in the state.
133 liquor boxes stolen in Barnala
Unidentified persons barged into a vend in Barnala disstrict’s Bhadaur and stole 133 boxes of country-made liquor worth Rs 4 lakh on intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. The vend also had another 350 boxes of the same-brand liquor. The thieves did not steal a single bottle of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
Ankit Sood, the shop owner, said, “It is the third theft in our vends in the district.”
Bhadaur station house officer (SHO) Gurvir Singh said the police are investigating the matter.
(Inputs by Anil Sharma and Harsimran Singh Batra from Amritsar and Ludhiana)
