Bad news for booze lovers in Punjab, as the prices of liquor are going to shoot up from April 1. The state government took the decision soon after the excise policy for 2017-18 got a go-ahead from the council of nine ministers on March 18.
The decision to hike the prices was taken by the government in order to keep a tab on the loss of revenue. It should be noted that Punjab has reduced the number of vends from 6,384 to 5,900 after the Supreme Court order that bars liquor shops near national and state highways.
From April 1, the price of of country-made liquor will increase by around Rs 10 to Rs 15 whereas a bottle of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) will get costlier by Rs 40.
Sources close to Indian Express from the excise department affirmed that in order to provide relief to liquor contractors, the liquor quota has been decreased.
“With a higher quota the contractors either used to face losses as they were not able to sell as much liquor, or, would engage in ways and means to ensure selling their quota. Cutting quota would also bring down consumption of liquor”, said the source.
Few days back, a new tax policy was introduced in Gurugram and Faridabad, according to which where people will have to shell out 20% extra to buy liquor. Also, the hike is applicable on Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), country liquor and on the foreign liquor as well.
Excise and taxation minister of Haryana, Captain Abhimanyu on March 5 introduced this policy which will be applicable for the year 2017-2018. The policy is being touted as the ‘vendor biased’ because it will be beneficial only for the sellers.
