No supplementary duty for purchasing liquor in bulk for parties, decides govt

Kolkata: The state government has recently decided to do away with the system of paying supplementary duty on liquor that had to be bought in bulk for the purpose of serving to guests in parties. The move will also check loss in GST collection.

Earlier, the organiser of a party had to make a payment to get permission to serve liquor to guests. While applying for the same, one had to provide the total number of heads to be present in the party and the total volume of liquor to be bought for them.

Even after paying the fees to get the necessary permission, one also had to pay an additional duty on the volume of liquor to be bought. Now, the state government has introduced a new norm, as per which one doesn't need to pay the supplementary duty which was Rs 332 per litre for foreign liquor and Rs 200 per litre for Indian made foreign liquor.

Sources said that the state government has taken up the move after it was noticed that a large section of party organisers or catering owners, on behalf of an organiser, carry out the entire task of getting all necessary clearances.

In a bid to avoid paying the supplementary duty as much as possible, they used to show that there will be a gathering of only 50 people and used to make arrangements for 150 or more.

By bringing down the number of heads attending a party, the total volume of liquor to be bought for them also used to go down and they had to pay lesser supplementary duty.

A bid to do so also results in a loss in GST as a catering owner has to pay 5 percent GST for serving food and by showing lesser number of guests in a party, they can easily evade giving the GST.

Moreover, the experts in the excise sector have ascertained that one had to pay more for Indian made foreign liquors (IMFL) if they had to pay the supplementary duty. So, many became inclined to buy foreign liquor, sources said, adding that the sale of IMFL would go up with the initiative taken by the state government.

However, the basic permission to serve liquor at a party has to be taken as usual, sources said. Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, Khalid Aizaz Anwar, the state Excise commissioner, could not be contacted.