Liquor to cost more in Haryana

Liquor prices are set to go up in the range of 7 per cent to 35 per cent depending upon brands in Haryana with the state government today raising the minimum retail prices in a new excise policy launched here today for the year 2015-16.
The new Excise Policy, which will be for one year has been approved in the meeting of State Cabinet held here today.
In the new Excise Policy, minimum retail sale price of liquor has been "marginally" increased and rationalised, an official spokesman said.
As per detail given by the department, the retail prices of country liquor has been increased by 20 per cent while in case of IMFL, the prices of scotch and premium whisky brands such as premium, regular and deluxe have been increased by 7 to 18 per cent.

In case of super deluxe brand, the price per bottle has been increased by 35 per cent.
The price of regular beer has been increased by Rs 5 per bottle to Rs 55 while rate of strong beer is decreased by Rs 5 per bottle to Rs 65.

Official spokesman said the import duty on alcohol to be used for industrial purposes has been reduced from Rs 6 per Proof Litre to Rs 3 per PL.
Moreover, the rate of VAT on liquor has been enhanced from 4 per cent to 8 per cent with surcharge, he said.
The Excise and Taxation Department will hire some locations for setting up of liquor vends having high revenue potential in Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) areas and Haryana tourist complexes for which the rent will be paid by the Department, he said.

In the new Policy, it has been decided to retain the maximum basic quota of country liquor (CL) at 900 lakh proof litre (PL) and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) at 500 lakh PL.
However, the maximum number of retail outlets has been kept at the same level of 3,500 as in the year 2014-15.
For the purpose of allotment, the vends will be clubbed into groups comprising a maximum number of three vends of either country liquor or IMFL.
Apart from this, E-tendering has been introduced for the first time for allotment of retail outlets. No vends would be allowed in the villages where 'Kanya Gurukul' were situated, he said.

While the participation fee for the bidders has been reduced from Rs 25,000 per vend to Rs 10,000 per vend to encourage participation, the percentage of fixed quota of CL has been enhanced from 25 per cent to 40 per cent to be equally divided amongst all the distilleries.