CABINET NOD TO INCREASE IN LIQUOR, BEER SHOPS’ LICENCE FEE IN UP
Now licence required for serving liquor on special trains, cruise
LUCKNOW : The state cabinet on Tuesday approved new excise policy for 2020-2021 providing for increase in licence fees for liquor shops, special licence for serving liquor on special trains and cruise and provision for airport lounge bar at the airports and selling wine at beer shops along with the IMFL shops in UP. No licence was required up to now for serving liquor in the special trains.
LUCKNOW : The state cabinet on Tuesday approved new excise policy for 2020-2021 providing for increase in licence fees for liquor shops, special licence for serving liquor on special trains and cruise and provision for airport lounge bar at the airports and selling wine at beer shops along with the Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) shops in Uttar Pradesh.
No licence was required up to now for serving liquor in the special trains being operated for promotion of tourism.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath presided over the meeting of the state cabinet that approved proposal to increase in basic license fee for Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL), beer, and country made liquor shops by 20, 15 and 10 percent. The hike in licence fee though may lead to increase in prices with effect from April 1, 2020.
Principal secretary excise Sanjay Bhoosreddy said there would be no increase in prices of IMFL and beer though the country made liquor would go costlier by Rs 5 per quarter.
He said the prices of premium brand whiskey may, however, come down due to various measures.
Briefing media persons, UP government spokespersons and ministers Sidharth Nath Singh and Shrikant Sharma said the new excise policy would bring more transparency and remove the cartels.
Reddy said the new policy aims at higher excise duty realisation due to ease of doing business through decentralisation of power, rationalisation of duty structure, use of modern technologies for quality assurance and availability of brands and highend quality products all over the year.
Singh said applications for renewal of shop licences would be made online and allotment would be made on a single day across the state through e-lottery. He said no licensee would get more than two shops across the state.
He said all those having more shops in the state would, however, able to get their licence for IMFL, beer and model shops renewed on payment of 20 per cent higher fee of the total of fees and additional fees paid on the total consumption in 2018-2019.
The licence of country-made liquor shops will be renewed on two percent increase in minimum guaranteed quality (MGQ). Under the new policy, the duty on beer produced at the micro breweries has been brought down from Rs 150 bulk litre to Rs 60 bulk litre. Online single stage renewal system has been introduced for brand registration and trade mark registration. For measuring quantity and quality of liquor at the bottling plants, modern electronic gadgets would be used.
These would include mass flow metres, radar based level transmitters and electronic bottle counters.
For ease of doing business, the retailers whose licences for IMFL, beer and model shops are renewed will be allowed to sell the stock of previous financial year by paying the roll over stock fee and difference in duty and addition duty payable in the year of renewed licence. New policy provides for categorisation of areas for payment of annual licence fees for bars. This would range from Rs 2.5 lakh to 25 lakh for different categories of hotels in different areas. The licence fees for clubs would be from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.