New booze shops bring in big bucks for Haryana govt

Gurugram: The business of booze is raking in the money for Haryana rich and its richest district Gurugram is leading the pack.

According to the state's Excise department, Haryana – in 2018-19 – accrued Rs 12,342 crore by means of tendering new licences.

Of this amount, east and west districts of Gurugram, along with Faridabad, have contributed Rs 787 crores.

The huge demand for getting new licences in southern districts of Haryana could be gauged from the fact that earlier only 663 crores were collected from these districts.

However, an extended bidding process was carried out by the government on March 27 and 28, resulting in the government filling its coffers to the brim.

There has been an 18 per cent increase in setting up new alcoholic vendor units. This growth comes after there was a decrease of around 2 per cent in fee licences for new tenants.

For long, Gurugram has been leading the state's 22 districts, in terms of setting up new vendor units for selling alcoholic beverages, followed closely by Faridabad.

This time, however, the southern districts faced stiff competition from districts of Panipat and Kaithal, which showed around 20 per cent increase.

The new bidding process comes after the Supreme Court's order to stop sale of liquor in vendor units located within 500 metres of national highways. As most high scale liquor pubs and restaurants are located along National Highway-8, the adverse impact was mostly felt in Gurugram.

Change in distances, however, prevented the sale of hard beverages in these units.

Most liquor vending units now have shifted to inner areas of the city, giving rise complaints by residents who claim that most units have come up in residential areas.

Taking cognisance of it being a major money spinner, the Haryana government has increased the licence fee on several occasions and even increased the bar licence.

That, however, has not deterred the inflow of new business to the city. In the financial year of 2017-18, the state government introduced mass cartelisation for liquor vending units.