Liquor sales: Malls to sell premium brands in UP

Lucknow, Mar 1: Premium foreign

would now be available in Uttar Pradesh's shopping

. For this, the state government has decided to levy a license fee of Rs.10 lakh.

A proposal mooted by the excise department was approved by the state cabinet on Thursday, paving way for opening of liquor vending shops in malls across the state.

This move comes as part of the new excise policy of Uttar Pradesh for the financial year 2013-14 which aims at a revenue realisation of Rs.12,500 crore.

While many say that the new excise policy approved by the 11-month-old Akhilesh Yadav government is a 'photocopy' of the policy followed by his predecessor Mayawati, the state government has hiked the fees for country made and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) license, its renewal and license fees for setting up of a model liquor vending shop.

Basic license fees of country made liquor has seen a marginal increase from 6,000 to 7,000 and the excise duty has been upped by Rs.23.

The beer license fees has been hiked by 15 percent and the slabs of IMFL on which excise duty would be levied have been brought down from 12 to seven.

After the implementation of the new excise policy, the country made liquor prices would go up by 10 percent, while the IMFL would become dearer by 15 to 20 percent.

For the urban body areas and Noida, the license fees has been increased from Rs.25 to Rs.30 lakh. Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Bareilly have been kept in 'special zone' brackets.