Liquor shops to remain closed till further orders

Liquor shops in the city will remain closed until further orders as district excise and taxation department has not received any fresh directive from the government

Liquor shops in the city will remain closed until further orders as district excise and taxation department has not received any fresh directive from the government in this regard, officials said.

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With Gurugram opening industries and businesses from Monday, it was expected that liquor shops would be opening in the city but people were disappointed after they heard that liquor shops in Gurugram will not be opened.

H C Dahiya, deputy excise and taxation commissioner (west), said that they have not received any orders yet to reopen the liquor vends in the district. However, they have received more than 100 calls on Sunday after chief minister had announced that shops will reopen from Monday. “We are likely to open the liquor vends in the coming week. However, we have not decided on a date yet as we haven’t received any orders from the state,” he said.

The Haryana government on March 26 had decided to temporarily shut down all the liquor vends across the state till further orders as part of its preventive measures to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, said officials.

The decision was taken after the deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, who also holds the portfolios of excise and taxation, held a video conference with all the deputy excise and taxation commissioners (DETCs) of the state and ordered them to get the vends shut by the midnight of March 26.

249 liquor vends in Gurugram had remained open even as malls and other non-essential stores were shut to contain the spread of coronavirus in the first week of March, said the officials.

The officials said outlets across the state selling both countrymade and Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) were shut. A major chunk of state’s revenue comes in the form of excise duty, which was ₹6,600 crore last year.

All liquor godowns in the city are also shut, the officials said, adding that there has been a major dip in the sale of liquor in the last two months which is more than ₹one crore.

The police had recovered more than 10,000 cases of IMFL liquor from Sohna, Pataudi and the city area in the last two months which were being smuggled in trucks with vegetables, said the police.

“The closure order was issued keeping in mind the safety of public health and to ensure social distancing. Though we did not receive any complaints, we want to take precautionary measures in the wake of coronavirus,” Chautala said.