TS Govt Releases New Excise Policy For Liquor Shops:- A new excise policy for the year 2017-19 has been announced by the Telangana State government. The new policy which would be in force for two years from October 1.
According to the new policy, the liquor sale timings in the GHMC limits has been increased by one hour. The liquor outlets will be permitted to sell liquor till 11 pm as against the existing 10 pm deadline. Moreover, the government in view of the law and order problems reported at liquor outlets, has made it compulsory in the new excise policy that all the retail liquor shops should install at least two CCTV cameras on the licensed premises and they should be linked directly to state Excise Control Room of Prohibition and Excise Department.
(Video Source: NTV Telugu)
Justifying the compulsory installation of cameras, Principal Secretary (Excise) Somesh Kumar said that it will check antisocial elements as well as adulteration of liquor in the shops. Addressing the media, Mr. Kumar said new orders have been issued on the new excise policy by the state government on Tuesday and the notification will be issued on Wednesday calling for applications for retail liquor shops. The applications will be received from September 13 to 19 up to 5 pm. The selection will be through a lottery on September 22, if there is more than one application for one shop.
The application fee has been increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, and is not refundable. In the previous time, the application fee earned the state government Rs 155 crore and in the course of the next two years, this is expected to increase to Rs 250 crore.
The licence is for two years and the population slab has been reduced from 6 to 4. The retail shop excise tax is Rs 45 lakh, for a population of upto 50,000, and for a population for 50,001 to 5 lakh population it is Rs 55 lakh, and for 5,00,001 to 1 lakh population it is Rs 85 lakh. Above 20 lakh population, the licence fee is Rs 1.10 crore.
In the current excise year, the State government has earned Rs 1260 crore in excise revenue and expects Rs 1360 crore in the ensuing excise year. The number of retail shops will remain the same at 2216.
SUPRAJA
