Kejriwal govt gives 2-month extension to vends selling country liquor

New Delhi, Aug 01: Preempting chaos due to liquor shortage in the city, the Delhi government has extended licences of country liquor vends by two months till September 30 as fresh tenders are yet to be finalised, officials said on Monday.

Meanwhile, vends selling Indian and Foreign liquor brands will remain shut despite the one month extension granted by Delhi government on Sunday as a nod from Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena is awaited, they said.

The excise department of Delhi government, in an order issued on Saturday, extended the licences of over 250 country liquor shops in the city.

''The extension is subject to payment of pro-rata fee for the extension period,'' said the order.

Tenders for country liquor licence were floated twice in recent months.

On the first occasion, the tender failed to attract adequate number of bidders while the excise department scrapped it the second time after finding out that bidders were ''pooling'' to keep the bids low, they added.

Delhi government has decided to revert back to old excise regime and run liquor stores through its agencies after realising that the Excise Policy 2021-22 was not able to achieve the desired objectives of fetching greater revenues and the fact that it's implementation is under scanner for alleged violation of rules and procedural lapses, officials said.

Many liquor vends in the city, however, were closed after selling out stocks through rebates and special schemes like buy one get two free.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government Corporations that were earlier in retail business of liquor before new Excise Policy 2021-22 was implemented in November 2021, have started activating their system to open liquor stores.

The four corporations-DSIIDC, DTTDC, DCCWS and DSCSC- ran 475 liquor stores out of total 864 in Delhi under the old excise policy regime. The private stores licences held by individuals, numbered 389.

A DSIIDC official informed that around 90 shops of liquor were run by the Corporation on rent. Several of those rented premises are still vacant where the liquor stores can be opened. But the whole process from getting requisite licences and placing order for stocks will take 4-5 days," he said.

Another Corporation DTTDC has also contacted around 40 owners of private premises where it earlier operated liquor stores. Prior to new excise policy 2021, DTTDC ran 122 shops of liquor, officials said.

The Excise Policy 2021-22 extended by the government till July 31 was withdrawn in the backdrop of a CBI probe recommended by the Lt Governor into alleged violation of rules and procedural lapses in its implementation. The policy was extended twice since April this year, as the government was still working on a revised excise policy for 2022-23 for which necessary approvals were yet to be taken.

Under the Excise Policy, government had issued retail licences for 849 vends across the city divided into 32 zones. Currently only 468 were running whose licences expired on July 31 as the policy has been withdrawn by the government.

There was no clarity over extension of other excise licenses including those for hotels, clubs and restaurants serving liquor and wholesale liquor operations that too seized to exist after withdrawing of the Excuse Policy 2021-22.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia who also holds Excise portfolio had said announcing withdrawal of Excise policy on Saturday that the Chief Secretary was directed to ensure that there was no "chaos" in the city during the transition period before opening of government liquor stores. The Chief Secretary was also asked for keeping check on sale of illegal alcohol in the city in the meantime, Sisodia had said.