State’s new excise policy for the year 2017-18 announced.

CHANDIGARH, March 5- Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister, Capt. Abhimanyu today announced State’s new excise policy for the year 2017-18, which retains the same quota and number of retail outlets for Countrymade Liquor (CL) and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) as is in the current financial year. Also, the department has accepted resolutions of 185 gram panchayats for closure of liquor vends, hence no liquor vend will be opened in their respective areas next year, whereas only five resolutions for closure of liquor vends were accepted last year. There can be a maximum of 3500 retail outlets of CL and IMFL in the State for the year 2017-18. The quota of Country Liquor and IMFl have been retained at 950 lakh PL and 550 lakh PL respectively.
Capt. Abhimanyu said that the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal has approved this policy, which ensures ease of doing business with some flexible norms and aims at increasing the revenue of the State.
He said that the year 2017-18 the allotment of liquor vends would be made on the basis of Zones in a shift from allotment on the basis of Group of vends in the previous year. The Zones will comprise of six retail vends wherein the allottee will have a freedom and flexibility to locate his vend within his Zone subject to the legal provisions and directions of the Supreme Court in this regard wherein Supreme Court directed that no liquor shop shall be located within a distance of 500 meters from National and State Highways. The licensee shall also have the flexibility to either sell CL or IMFL or both at any of his vends in the Zone. Further, to plug the menace of bootlegging, two sub-vends per Zone have been permitted in the urban area for the first time against a fixed fee of Rs 10 lakh per sub-vend. The bars and pubs will continue to function and the directions of the Supreme Court with regard to condition of being at 500 meters away from National and State Highway do not apply to them following the advice of the Attorney General of India and its Advocate General in this regards. In reply to a question he said that as result of this decision of the Supreme Court, about 500 retail vends would be dislocated, but the State Government has hailed the decision.
The Export Duty in case of rectified spirits and ENA has been reduced from Rs 1.5 per BL to Rs 0.25 per BL to reduce the huge existing gap between export duty rates of Haryana and Punjab. It is likely to enhance the capacity utilization of manufacturing units of the State.
He said that for the first time Government has decided to put to auction by way of inviting bids for Wholesale license of supply of Imported Foreign Liquor (Bottled In Origin) in the State of Haryana to tap the optimum potential of Government revenue. The Government is likely to fetch a revenue of above Rs 50 Crore. The Government has also rationalized the duty on supply of liquor through Canteen Stores Department by tapping the huge gap as compared to the neighbouring State of Punjab. The comparative chart is reproduced below:
Item
Haryana Current rates 2016-17
Punjab Assessment fee 2017-18
Current difference of levy between Haryana and Punjab
New Haryana rates for the year 2017-18
The difference from Punjab after the new rates
RUM
Rs 42.50 per Pl
Rs. 127 per PL
Rs 84.15 per PL
Rs 85 per PL
Rs 42 per PL
IMFL
Rs 90 per PL
Rs 375 per PL
Rs 285 per PL
Rs 235 per PL
Rs 140 per PL
Wine contents of spirit up to 25*
Rs 3 per BL
Rs 16 per BL
Rs 13 per BL
Rs 10 per BL
Rs 6 per BL
Wine more than 25*
Rs 4 per BL
Rs 16 per BL
Rs 12 per BL
Rs 10 per BL
Rs 6 per BL
BEER
Rs 15 per BL
Rs 72 per BL
Rs 57 per BL
Rs 44 per BL
Rs 28 per BL

Duty on Country Liquor and IMFL has been rationalized and certain new categories have also been introduced for the purpose of Duty.
Rate of Excise Duty on Country Liquor has been increased from Rs 20 per PL to Rs 28 per PL. Duty on IMFL ranged from Rs 40 to Rs 70 per PL on four categories of IMFL. These rates have been revised in the range of Rs 45 per PL to Rs 200 per PL on seven categories depending upon the Ex Distillery Price. Rates of duty on Beer were in the range of Rs 25 to Rs 40 per BL which have now been fixed at in the range from Rs 31 per BL to Rs 36 per BL. Similarly the rate of duty on Wine has been fixed at Rs 10 per BL whereas it was Rs three and Rs four per BL earlier.

Minimum Retail Price of liquor have also been rationalized in view of change in Duty etc. Comparative list of such prices of some popular brands is given below:

Sr. No.
Liquor Brands
Current Rate
(Per Bottle)
New Rate
(Per Bottle)
1
Country Liquor
120
130
2
Royal Stag, McDowell No. 1 etc.
380
450
3
Signature Whisky,
Smirnoff Vodka,
Blenders Pride etc.
500
600
4
Antiquity Blue,
McDowell’s Single
Malt etc.
750
850
5
Black Dog 8 Yrs.,
Teachers, Black & White etc.
1300
1500
6
Beer (Mild Beer)
60
65
Beer (Strong)
79
75
Canned Beer (Light)
70
75
Canned Beer (Strong)
80
85

He said that annual license fee of the bars has been increased from Rs 12.5 lakh to Rs 15 Lac in case of Gurugram, Rs. 10 lakh to Rs 12 Lac in case of Faridabad and Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs nine lakh in other districts of the State.

The Minister said that VAT rates on liquor have been revised from flat existing 10 per cent plus surcharge at the rate of five per cent to as mentioned below:

CL 13 per cent plus surcharge at the rate of five per cent
Beer 13.5 per cent plus surcharge at the rate of five per cent
IMFL 14 per cent plus surcharge at the rate of five per cent

He said that quota transfer fee has been reduced from Rs nine per Proof Liter (PL) in case of CL and from Rs 20 PL to Rs six per PL in case of IMFL. The excise duty on both CL and IMFL has also been rationalized.

He said that with a view to effectively check the illegal sale and smuggling of liquor, an Enforcement Wing would be set up by the Department. It has been made mandatory for the licensees to issue bill for each sale above Rs 1000, and in case of sale of lesser amount, they will have to issue bill if the customer so desires.
The Additional Chief Secretary, Excise and Taxation, Mr Sanjeev Kaushal, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr Shyamal Misra and other senior officers of the Department were also present.