UT earns ₹265cr from liquor vend auction, drop of 25%

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh excise and taxation department on Wednesday earned a revenue of ₹265.32 crore from the auction of 78 liquor vends for 2020-21 fiscal.

As many as 94 vends were put on auction, but there were no takers for 16. It received a total 157 bids electronically and had a total reserve price of ₹216.33 crore.

Last year, the department had fetched ₹ 343.63 crore from the auction of 81 vends, a drop of nearly 25% in revenue this year. The average auction price for a vend in fact went down from ₹4.23 crore to ₹3.40 crore.

“Last year revenues were for 12 months, but this year, the new excise policy has a term of nine months,” reasoned a senior official of the department. However, the official conceded that the coronavirus pandemic has also impacted the revenue growth. While, last year bids showed 34% increase over the reserve price, this year it was just 22.65%.

A liquor vend in the Sector 9 internal market fetched the highest amount of ₹7.56 crore

against the reserve price of ₹4.12 crore. Last year, the department had earned the highest amount from a liquor vend in Dhanas (₹10.78 crore), which went for ₹7.05 crore, the second highest bid this year.

Meanwhile, the lowest bid cameforavendinkishangarh. It went for ₹1.13 crore against a reserve price of ₹1.12 crore.

Bajaj Spirits made the maximum successful bids, for eight vends. Super Distilleries and Liquor World Venture got seven

vends each while Kler Wines got five. The department had capped the maximum allotment to one company at 10.

The opening of e-tenders was held at Tagore Theatre, Sector 18, in the presence of Mandip Singh Brar, excise and taxation commissioner.

Theauction process of the leftover 16 vends will start on June 24 with the submission of bids, which will be opened on June 29. The new excise policy will come into effect from July 1.