Most Jharkhand wine traders surrender license to excise

To register their protest against the introduction of multipoint tax system by the administration, a majority of wine traders of Jharkhand have surrendered their licenses with the Excise department.

To register their protest against the introduction of multipoint tax system by the administration, a majority of wine traders of Jharkhand have surrendered their licenses with the Excise department.

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Jharkhand Wine Dealers Association (JWDA) President Manish Jaiswal said around 80 per cent of around 1500 licensees of foreign liquor traders across Jharkhand have already lodged petitions with the excise.

All 104 license holding wine traders in the steel city surrendered their licenses to excise authorities here to express solidarity with JWDA, Jaiswal said.

Prabhakar Singh, the President of Jamshedpur Wine Merchant Association as well as President of Jamshedpur Hotelier’s Association, said all hotels and bars have agreed to extend their support to JWDA and stop selling the liquor till their demand was met.

"We have no other option as running our business has become almost impossible due to the introduction of new tax system, having almost doubled price of foreign liquor as compared to adjacent states including Bengal," Jaiswal said.

The sale of foreign liquor has also drastically fallen ever since the new tax system came into force last week, he said.

The per month sale of foreign liquor in Jharkhand was over one lakh cases while the sale of beer in the state was almost 1.5 lakh cases, he said.