Uttarakhand targets Rs 591 cr from new excise policy

The Uttarakhand government has fixed a revenue target of Rs 591 crore under the new excise policy, which came into effect from Wednesday, for the current financial year 2009-10. This is an increase of 18 per cent over previous year’s Rs 501 crore.

The government has hiked the licence fee of all the 474 liquor shops by 16.7 per cent. The minimum guarantee duty per shop has also been fixed at 10 per cent to 27 per cent this year.

Fresh allotment of most of the liquor shops has already been completed, excise secretary Ranvir Singh said.

For meeting the new target, officials said they were hoping that the government would expand its excise business by opening more shops. Under the plan, nearly 40 new shops have been proposed in different areas of the hill state.

Though the overall excise revenue has been increasing steadily in the state, the last three years saw a nearly 50 per cent increase in revenues from the sale of liquor .

Last year’s sales were driven by various factors including the policy decision to bar government enterprises from doing wholesale liquor business.

Meanwhile, the Hoteliers Association of Uttarakhand has opposed the increase in the bar licence fees and threatened to move the high court over the issue. “The government must roll back the hike,” said association president SP Kochar. The government has hiked the bar license fees from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh for non-star hotels and Rs 6 lakh to Rs 9 lakh for star hotels.