CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday gave nod for extending the existing excise policy for three months from April 1 to June 30.
Eyeing a revenue of Rs 1,910 crore in this period, the government will grant an extension to the existing licencees who will give 1.75% excess revenue over the minimum guaranteed revenue of 2021-22 for their respective group in order to maintain stability in the liquor trade. However, the number of groups/zones and the number of liquor vends have not been changed.
To generate more revenue, the minimum guaranteed quota (MGQ) of Punjab Made Liquor (PML), Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), beer and Imported Foreign Liquor (IFL) of each group has been increased by 10% over the minimum guaranteed quota of the corresponding first quarter of the last financial year of the zone.
Additional fixed licence fee increased
The additional fixed licence fee of each group has also been increased by 19.45%. For the renewal period, the additional fixed licence fee will be charged at the rate of 25%. Every licencee will be required to deposit 50% of the additional fixed fee by April 10 while the remaining 50% amount will have to be cleared by June 10.
The amount of additional fixed licence fee has also been increased to allow retail licencees to lift liquor as per their requirement.
The ratio of the fixed and open quota of PML has been kept at 30:70 as was in the financial year 2021-22. In order to control the production and movement of liquor, an IT-based track and trace system would be implemented.
Process to start April 1 The government will start the process of framing the new policy by seeking suggestions from stakeholders from April 1. All eyes will be on the new excise policy as it will be one of the major revenue sources for the AAP government.
