New excise policy may balance chorus of liquor ban in religious sites without revenue loss - Hindustan Times
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New excise policy may balance chorus of liquor ban in religious sites without revenue loss

Hindustan Times, Lucknow | By, Lucknow
Nov 15, 2018 10:53 AM IST

A delegation of liquor sellers recently met excise department officials and came back assured that the sale timings would be relaxed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh is working on a new excise policy that is expected to balance the growing chorus for liquor ban in religious places without disturbing the increasing revenue it gets from the sale of liquor.

Twenty crore bulk litres of countrymade liquor were consumed in UP till September this year, overtaking the mimimum guarantee quota (MGQ) of 18.25 crore bulk litres(HT File Photo)
Twenty crore bulk litres of countrymade liquor were consumed in UP till September this year, overtaking the mimimum guarantee quota (MGQ) of 18.25 crore bulk litres(HT File Photo)

The new policy, likely to be made public by the year-end, is also expected to increase the liquor sale time that was reduced in the state by three hours last year. Relaxing the liquor sale timing, despite a spurt in consumption, seems to be part of the plan to partially balance the likely losses from the expected liquor ban in religious places, people familiar with the matter said.

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A delegation of liquor sellers recently met excise department officials and came back assured that the sale timings would be relaxed. “We have come back with the feeling that the government would consider our demand,” said Kanhaiyalal Maurya of the Lucknow Liquor Association (LLA). Excise department officials too hinted similarly.

“All aspects are being considered and looked upon,” an official said.

Last year, the Yogi Adityanath government reviewed 10am- 11pm sale timings to noon till 10pm. Still, Diwali sales were encouraging this year.

“In Lucknow alone, sales worth 15 crore were recorded during the festival against 12 crore sale last year. We also witnessed people gifting scotch and other costly liquor as Diwali gifts,” said Maurya.

The buoyancy in sale wasn’t limited to the festival as excise department records shared by the government show.

Twenty crore bulk litres of countrymade liquor were consumed in UP till September this year, overtaking the mimimum guarantee quota (MGQ) of 18.25 crore bulk litres. This was a 30% spurt in consumption over last year when 15.35 crore bulk litres of countrymade liquor was downed.

Around the same period last year, 7.08 crore bottles of foreign liquor were consumed in the run-up to festival time against 9.26 crore bottles in the same period this year.

Beer consumption went on similar lines — as many as 18.26 crore bottles this time against 16.58 crore bottles last year.

“The revenue growth over the 2016-17 was 21%, the highest ever in recent decades,” an excise department official said.

It’s in this backdrop that the effect of a likely ban on liquor in religious places might have on revenue is being studied.

Seers from Ayodhya and Mathura have met chief minister Yogi Adityanath on the liquor ban issue.

“The CM is ‘favourably inclined’ to banning liquor sale in religious places,” a senior government official said.

Although excise minister Jai Pratap Singh wasn’t available, his ministerial colleague Shrikant Sharma, also the government spokesman, confirmed: “The government is seriously considering putting a total ban on the sale of meat and liquor in the entire Ayodhya district within a legal framework,” Sharma said, adding similar restrictions were being considered for Mathura. Mahant Kamal Nayan Das of Ayodhya along with Ved Prakash Gupta, the BJP lawmaker from the temple town, and Sharad Sharma, the VHP’s Ayodhya-based spokesman met Adityanath on Wednesday. “He heard us patiently. Liquor won’t be sold in Ayodhya for sure,” the VHP spokesman said.

BOX

THE IMPORTANCE OF EXCISE REVENUE

After commercial tax, excise contributes the highest revenue to the state government’s coffers. The UP government has set an excise revenue target of 30,000 crore in 2018-19, up from nearly 22,000 crore in 2016-17 and 19,000 crore in 2015-16. The ‘upwardly mobile’ expectations from excise are fuelled by consumption that has been growing despite the slash in sale time.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Manish Chandra Pandey is a Lucknow-based Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times’ political bureau in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Along with political reporting, he loves to write offbeat/human interest stories that people connect with. Manish also covers departments. He feels he has a lot to learn not just from veterans, but also from newcomers who make him realise that there is so much to unlearn.

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