Odisha to allow home delivery of liquor, will charge 50% special ‘Covid-19 fee’

The outlets can levy delivery charges of Rs 100 for orders up to Rs 1,000 and thereafter Rs 25 for every additional Rs 500 order value. In no case, the delivery charge will exceed Rs 300.

Odisha will allow ‘home delivery’ of liquor by licensed outlets Sunday onwards. The state will also charge special Covid-19 fee amounting to 50% of MRP.

A man buys bottles of liquor outside a wine store during a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of new coronavirus in Jammu.(AP File Photo)

In a notification issued by the state excise department, the government said home delivery of liquor will be allowed by existing ON & OFF shop licensees of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer in areas other than Covid-19 containment zones and shopping malls. A ‘special Covid fee’ amounting to 50% over the MRP will be charged to generate additional revenue for the state government, excise commissioner Anjan Kumar Manik said.

The excise commissioner said home delivery of liquor can be taken up by retailers directly and through reputed food aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy, delivery service providers and standard technology platforms, etc. acting as retail aggregators. However, they need to obtain no-objection certificates (NOC) from the excise commissioner for the purpose.

The outlets can levy delivery charges of Rs 100 for orders up to Rs 1,000 and thereafter Rs 25 for every additional Rs 500 order value. In no case, the delivery charge will exceed Rs 300.

As per the guidelines of the excise department, the shops will have to display their phone/mobile/WhatsApp number/email id/UPI details for receiving orders and facilitating digital payments outside their shop.

The Odisha State Beverages Corporation website (www.osbc.co.in) will also put out the district wise list of ON/OFF shops licensees along with their details.

The product-wise latest MRP will also be put up on the website.

Retailers can take orders for home delivery over the phone or through SMS, WhatsApp, email etc.

Liquor can be delivered between 7am and 6pm and delivery is expected to be made within six hours of placing the order.

The government has made it mandatory for delivery agents to follow necessary social distancing norms like wearing masks, maintaining six feet distance and frequently using sanitiser.

Officials said the special Covid-19 cess is expected to make up for the revenue shortfall that the state is likely to face in 2020-21 due to massive economic recession triggered by the lockdown. Though Odisha has budgeted total revenue receipts of Rs 1.24 lakh crore in 2020-21, it is unlikely to achieve it as RBI has forecast negative GDP growth.

In 2020-21, Odisha had set a target of Rs 5,250 crore excise revenue, 14.1% increase in its excise revenue of Rs 4600 crore in 2019-20. Excise revenue is one of the three important own-tax revenues of the state after GST and VAT/sales tax.