Liquor set to be cheaper in Haryana, Cabinet okays cut in import duty, VAT

Chandigarh, May 6

The state Cabinet, which met under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, today approved the new excise policy for the year 2022-23. The current excise year is applicable up to June 11, 2022.

For the second consecutive year, there will be almost no default in the payment of licence fee. The excise revenue collections in financial year 2021-22 stood at Rs 7,938.80 crore, a rise of 17% from the previous one.

In the new policy, the import duty on wine has been slashed by approximately 71.4% i.e. from Rs 7 per bulk litre to Rs 2 per bulk litre. The letter of intent fee for establishing a wine factory has also been reduced from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1 lakh.

Further, the liquor vends shall be auctioned through e-tender of the retail zones (comprising of maximum four retail shops) in 2022-23. The permission of operation in additional shifts to factories will be granted annually as against quarterly basis at present. Besides this, the power to renew licence and grant additional points in the existing bars has been delegated to the DETCs. Also, the approval of new labels will be done online. To encourage responsible drinking, beverages with low-alcohol content will be promoted.

Meanwhile, Morni has been added to the list of places where bar licencees can be granted to promote tourism and adventure sport. Also, bars and clubs located anywhere in the state can now seek licence.

Bars and retail vends can now have the flexibility to operate longer after the payment of additional fees. The basic quota of CL and IMFL shall be 1,100 lakh proof litre (PL) and 650 lakh PL, respectively, which is around 4% higher than last year.

Besides this, there will be no fixed quota of country liquor allotted to distilleries so the licencees will have full freedom to choose brands of any distillery. There will, however, be a marginal increase in the fee of the wholesale licences of country liquor and IMFL.

Moreover, there is no change in the minimum retail sale price of most brands of country liquor and IMFL, except Metro liquor where there is a marginal increase. Also, there will be no increase in the excise duty of most IMFL brands. Rather the IMFL brands above Rs 5,000 per case shall attract slightly lesser excise duty in order to ward off the challenge coming from a neighbouring state.

High-security holograms

• High-security holograms with track and trace system shall be implemented
• Flow meters will be installed in all distilleries and bottling plants
• Monitoring of facilities at liquor factories will be done through high-security CCTV cameras
• For better control over the inter-state movement of liquor, transit slips shall be introduced and POS machines shall be installed at all vends and bars