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State highways in HP too may fall prey to booze

In a fix over the auctioning of liquor vends that have remained unsold so far following the Supreme Court orders,…

State highways in HP too may fall prey to booze

(Photo: Getty Images)

In a fix over the auctioning of liquor vends that have remained unsold so far following the Supreme Court orders, the Himachal Pradesh government may follow the lead of other states and denotify state highways.

Sources said the state government may soon denotify state highways on the lines of other states as Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh and Haryana who had done the same to prevent closure of the liquor vends as per SC order.

Principal Secretary, Excise and Taxation Onkar Sharma said that most of the liquor vends have remained unsold in auctioning till March 31 and re-auctioning of these vends would be held on April 5 again.

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The state government is persuading contractors for bidding on April 5 as the SC in its decision on March 31 had reduced the distance from highways for liquor shops to 220 metres in small towns. The relaxation in distance norms will benefit HP as most of the towns along the highways have less than 20,000 population.

“We are hopeful that this would encourage contractors to go in for bidding as it is a big relaxation for them,” he said.

Onkar Sharma said if the liquor vends remain unsold in auctioning on April 5, the government would itself sell liquor and award the shops to state HP Beverage Ltd. “Once the HP Beverage Ltd takes over the sale of liquor, the contractors would be out from the business forever, and there would not be any auctioning of liquor in the future,” he said.

He said this is the last chance for all the contractors as the government has not increased licence fee or liquor quote for auctioning on April 5.

It is worthwhile to mention here that HP government, for the first time, had gone for multiple auctions and it received 20 per cent more revenue in the auctioning as compared to last year.

As per estimates, the state government is suffering a loss of Rs.2.5 crore every day on account of unsold liquor shops across the state.

Sources said many liquor vends remained unsold as some contractors who patronage of politicians had asked bidders to stay away from auction with the ulterior motive to form cartel and buy the unsold shops at throwaway prices.

However, their move backfired as government started multiple auctions, leading to generation of extra revenue and is also considering to start liquor sale through a government agency.

The move would also bring down the prices of alcohol in the state as the margin in liquor trade is around 25-30 per cent.

The Excise and Taxation Department aims to increase revenue to over Rs.1,500 Crore in current fiscal year as compared to Rs.1,351 Crore in 2016-17.

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