U'khand excise policy deferred by two months

The Uttarakhand government has deferred new excise policy for the year 2008-09 by two months but has increased the license fees of all the liquor shops by 16 per cent to meet the growing target.

Under the new arrangement, licences of all the 471 government shops have been extended for a period of two months but they have to pay the 16 per cent hike starting from the new fiscal 2008-09. The minimum guarantee duty per shop has also been fixed at 10 to 27 per cent.

This year, the new excise policy was deferred as the election code of conduct came into being in view of the local body election in Uttarakhand. "We will be announcing the new policy in two months time," said Excise Secretary Ranvir Singh.

The fresh allotment of the liquor shops would be undertaken only after the announcement of new excise policy, Singh said.

During the period 2007-08, the government hopes to earn excise revenue of Rs 425 crore against the target of Rs 417 crore. The new target for the current fiscal (2008-09) has been fixed at Rs 501 crore, which is 20 per cent higher than the pervious year.

To meet the new target, officials said they hope that the government may expand its excise business by opening more shops. Under the plan, nearly 40 new shops have been proposed in different areas of the state.

The overall excise revenue in Uttarakhand has been increasing steadily due to increase in consumption of liquor during the past seven years. But in the past three years, the revenue from liquor has remained stagnant at Rs 290-300 crore.

However, only last year, there was a sharp jump of 18 per cent in the sale of liquor driven by various factors including the decision to bar government enterprises from wholesale liquor business.

The government put a bar on the three government-run companies "" Gharwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) and Uttaranchal Poorva Sainik-Kalyan Udyam Limited (UPSUL) from liquor business.

This led to substantial increase in excise revenue since the licenses for the wholesale business were given directly to manufacturers, officials said.