Telangana government all set to jack up liquor shop licence fee

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is contemplating to increase the application fee and licence fee for wine shops by about 50 percent from the new excise year. Sources say that the additional revenue it would get from this can be used to fund the Dalit Bandhu scheme.

In 2019, the government had collected Rs 960 crore as non-refundable application fee from the prospective liquor dealers to allocate dealership through draw of lots for a period of two years.

This time, the application fee is likely to be increased to Rs 7 lakh as the competition for wine shop dealership would be more.

Investors from the realty industry are keen to enter the liquor trade and the demand for the licensed liquor shops would be doubled, top officials of the Excise and Prohibition department told The Hans India.

Similarly, annual licence fee would also be increased. In the current excise policy, the government has collected Rs 50 lakh from a liquor outlet in the area where the population was about 5,000. A tax of Rs 55 lakh was collected for a shop with population between 5,000 and 50,000.

For population between 50,000 and one lakh, the license fee was Rs 60 lakh. Between 1 lakh and 5 lakhs population, it was Rs 65 lakh and it will be Rs 85 lakh for population between 5 lakh and 20 lakh.

An amount of Rs 1.10 crore will be collected for the shops in the localities with above 20 lakh population.

"In just six months between April and September this year, the government has generated Rs 14,320 crore revenue through liquor sales. The government is planning to increase the revenue to Rs 17,000 crore in the next six months under the new excise policy.

A senior official said that the highest licence fee would be around Rs 1.50 crore in the densely populated areas, particularly in the Greater Hyderabad limits.

In all, the revenue target from liquor sales would be nearly Rs 30,000 crore per year under the new excise policy, officials said.

The number of wine shops is also likely to go up in Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Karimnagar and Warangal urban districts which reported steady increase in liquor sales during the recent months.