Govt earns excise revenue of over Rs 269 cr in 1st week of Sept so far

New Delhi: The Excise department has granted licences to more than 500 retail shops out of which 350 shops have already started sales since September 1, 2022. The department has restored the Excise duty based liquor policy regime under which the retail shops will be run by four Government Corporations — DTTDC, DSIIDC, DCCWS and DSCSC.

The government corporations will be catering to Delhi's liquor requirements till January 2023 and 72 wholesale suppliers have registered 600 brands of which 60 licenses with 430 brands (195 Indian and 235 Foreign) have been approved. The Delhi government has earned an excise revenue of over Rs 269 crore in the first week of September so far with the retail liquor business being expanded by its four undertakings across the city, officials said Tuesday.

More than 1,000 brands will be brought into the Delhi market to cater to different strata of the society and there is the availability of sufficient liquor for more than 12 full days.

The liquor outlets have reported an average sale of about 8 lakh in the first week of September which is likely to go up in the coming days and around 926 hotels, clubs and restaurant liquor licenses have also been auto-renewed for the period till February 28, 2023.

The m-Abkari mobile app has also been developed to facilitate public interface with the Excise department, through which citizens can access the location of retail vends and the availability of a particular brand in a particular retail vend. The government will work on encouraging people to move towards soft liquor — microbreweries, draught beer and wine and beer shops.

The department has approved one microbrewery and 4 more are in the pipeline, five premier wine and beer shops will be opened by the corporations in partnership with Delhi Metro and two applications of draught beer have also been received.

As part of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and also considering the fixed timelines, licensees are being facilitated through NOCs from the Trade and Taxes Department within 24 hours through a nodal officer. A help desk has also been made operational in the Excise department. The Excise Intelligence Bureau (EIB) has 33 teams at the Sub-division level headed by the area Sub-divisional magistrates to ensure no malpractices like bootlegging, cross-border liquor smuggling, hoarding, and illegal practices.