Liquor business surpasses revenue target for Ggm

GURUGRAM: As the financial year 2019-20 comes to close, various sectors like the automobile industry, which propels the economy of Gurugram, witnessed a massive slowdown and job losses. One sector, however, that did not see a slowdown was the liquor business. It surpassed the district's revenue estimate of

Rs 580 crore and crossed

Rs 662 crore.

With the excise policy already announced, the district authorities have now set a the target of Rs 800 crore in its excise revenue collection from Gurugram in the coming financial year. The authorities hope that it will be able to meet the target as it has provided more laxity for selling the foreign liquor.

Moreover, the government has also gone ahead and extended the timings for selling liquor in pubs and bars in Gurugram. There are over 227 pubs and bars in Gurugram. This is in addition to the 300 liquor vending units that sell liquor.

The excise department has divided Gurugram into two zones, the East and the West zones. Tenders to over 270 liquor vendors were given in the financial year.

For a district where the revenue in the financial year of 2009-10 was Rs 341 crore, the revenue for the excise department has only witnessed an exponential increase.

According to the official sources, the sale of liquor in Gurugram solely is over Rs two crore.

Even as the norms have been relaxed by the Haryana government to improve the revenue potential of Gurugram as well as Haryana, there have also been tighter regulations that will now be exercised.

The state government announced that there will now be strict monitoring that will be undertaken at the bottling plants and microbreweries. It is important to note that in comparison to Delhi, Gurugram had taken a lead in setting up microbreweries. Most of the owners of microbreweries, however, are now closing their shops due to losses. One of the big complaints of microbrewery owners is the huge fee that has been levied by the state government.

The annual license fees to run a microbrewery had been increased from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 18 lakh, which is the highest in the National Capital Region. In 2019, over 30 microbreweries were closed down in the city. It was also announced that the liquor vending units will not be allowed to set up in the rural areas if the residents resist. In the past, not just the rural areas but even the posh urban areas residents had raised objections to opening of the liquor vending unit in their neighbourhood.