Allotment of 240 liquor vends in Gurugram to start on Thursday at Mini Secretariat

The allotment of 240 liquor vends in the city will take place on Thursday at the Mini Secretariat in the presence of the deputy commissioner, two deputy excise and taxation commissioners (DETCs) and officials of the sales tax/GST and excise departments.

The Haryana government on Monday started the process of allotment of liquor vends through e-tendering bids across the state.

The Haryana government on Monday started the process of allotment of liquor vends through e-tendering bids across the state. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The allotment of 240 liquor vends in the city will take place on Thursday at the Mini Secretariat in the presence of the deputy commissioner, two deputy excise and taxation commissioners (DETCs) and officials of the sales tax/GST and excise departments.

This year the format of the auction will be the same for both Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and country liquor. There will be no separate counters for IMFL, as it used to happen earlier. The liquor vendors can opt either for both or one, but the licence fees will remain the same for both, said officials.

The Gurugram excise department has started receiving e-tenders for 240 liquor shops across the city. The evaluation of bids will take place after 5 pm on Thursday and the highest bidder will be allotted the zone as per the bidding on the same day.

The excise areas are divided into east and west Gurugram that have 19 and 21 zones, respectively. Each of the total 40 zones comprises a maximum of six liquor vends that are allowed to operate. In urban zones, four additional sub-vends are also allowed in each zone.

HC Dahiya, deputy commissioner of excise and taxation, Gurugram (West), said as per the policy, a licencee is entitled to sell both country liquor and IMFL from a vend. This became a practice with the implementation of the new liquor policy in 2017.

“In case the bidder fails to deposit the 5% of the bid amount on the due date, his bid shall be deemed to have been cancelled and earnest money deposited by him shall be forfeited and such bidder shall be blacklisted for five years,” he said.

This year 10% liquor vends are reserved for Schedule Caste (SC) and 5% for the Backward Class(A). In the city, four zones (24 vends) are reserved for scheduled castes and two zones (12 vends) are reserved for backward classes (A).

The state excise department earned ₹Rs 6,000 crore in liquor revenue in 2017 -18 and has set a revenue target of Rs 7,600 crore for the financial year 2018-19. Currently, IMFL is sold on the basis of the minimum retail price decided by the trader or the retailer.

The department will also form an ‘ Excise Preventive Force’ to curb the illegal sale of liquor this year after the growing cases of liquor smuggling across the state were reported. It will work in co-ordination with police.