AP govt revises excise duty on liquor

The state government has revised the excise duty on liquor for the year 2005-06. According to the orders issued on Monday, the present duty on ordinary liquor per proof litre will go up from Rs 35 to Rs 45.

For medium category liquor, the duty will go up from Rs 45 to Rs 70 while the duty on the premium category liquor has been enhanced to Rs 80 from Rs 65.

The revised rates form part of the new excise policy, which has been approved by the state cabinet on Tuesday. The move to hike excise duty is expected to fetch the government between Rs 400 crore and Rs 500 crore in additional revenues.

The government has also reduced the retailer's margin. As per the orders, the retailer's margin for ordinary, medium and premium varieties will be 27 per cent, 20 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. The present retailer's margin is 30 per cent.

The new policy envisages permission to start bars in places with more than 25,000 in population. Earlier, the bar licences were issued only in municipal areas. Following this new norm, 40 more towns of gram panchayat status are expected to have bars from the next financial year onwards. At present there are over 1,400 bars operating in the state.

The government has also raised the number of retail outlets licenced to operate to 7,500 from the existing number of 7,000.

Also, the government this time has stopped the practice of renewing the licence period, which means, all the existing licence holders will have to bid afresh.

Licences will be given through draws of all the applicants. An order to this effect has already been issued by the government. Licence fee for bars will be remained unchanged for the new excise year.