M A I N   N E W S

Liquor vends’ auction of 5 districts fetches 18 pc more
Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, March 24
The excise policy of the Haryana Government to segregate all districts for public auctioning of liquor vends for 2005-06 fetched an all-time high returns from auctions held here today for Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Narnaul (Mahendergarh) and Jhajjar, all falling in south Haryana.

According to Mr S.K. Sharma, Collector-cum-Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Headquarters (Chandigarh), the consolidated increase in the revenue from the auctions in the five districts in comparison to last year is 18 per cent. In numerical terms the total revenue earned from the auctions in these districts is Rs 264.54 crore in comparison to last year’s Rs 224.43 crore.

According to official figures, in terms of individual districts the percentage of increase in the revenue is — Gurgaon: 24.25, Faridabad: 8.46, Rewari: 27, Narnaul (Mahendergarh): 43.71 and Jhajjar: 4.40.

While the highest bid for all 100 liquor vends in Gurgaon was Rs 81.03 crore in comparison to Rs 65.21 of last year, the highest was for Faridabad i.e. Rs 90 crore in comparison to Rs 82.98 crore of last year. The highest bid for Rewari district was Rs 32.25 crore in comparison to last year’s Rs 25.39 crore and for Narnaul it was Rs 27.51 crore in comparison to Rs 19.14 crore of last year. The highest bid for Jhajjar was Rs 33.75 crore as compared to last year’s Rs 31.71 crore.

According to a senior officer of the department, the number of vends in all districts were the same this year.

Another highlight of this year’s auction was that the monopoly of the Ashok Wadia and Company syndicate, which controlled the liquor business in the entire state took a beating in Narnaul, with the group losing out to an Alwar (Rajasthan)-based Nand Lal and Company. The syndicate also lost to Harish Taneja and Company, a group from Haryana. It won the bid for Gurgaon and Faridabad. United Traders, which won the bid for Rewari, is considered to be part of the syndicate.

According to sources in the liquor trade, the syndicate faced stiff challenge in Gurgaon and Rewari, where the authorities had to resort to “one-third” rule, wherein anyone bidding more than the amount at which the rule is applied has to deposit 33 per cent of the auction money at the fall of the hammer.

There was a minor hiccup during the auction for Jhajjar as the auction officer kept the bid in suspension at Rs 33.05 crore. The auction was re-opened on account of which the final bid increased to Rs 33.75 crore. The officers of the department justified it by saying that this was done to increase the amount of final bid.

However, there was disappointment in official circles in Faridabad as the percentage increase in the revenue was far less than expected. The general feeling is that the competition for the district was not stiff, leading to success of the Ashok Wadia and Company syndicate by just a marginal increase to last year’s bid amount.