Chandigarh, May 6: The import pass fee on wine has been slashed from Rs 7 to Rs 2 per bulk litre and the letter of intent fee for establishing wine manufactory reduced from Rs 15 lakh to Rs one lakh, as per the new excise policy of Haryana approved by the state cabinet here on Friday.
The Cabinet, which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, approved the New Excise Policy for the year 2022-23. The current excise year is applicable up to June 11, 2022.
In the new policy, the import pass fee on wine has been slashed from Rs 7 to Rs 2 per BL. The letter of intent fee for establishing a wine manufactory has been cut from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1 lakh, an official statement said after the cabinet meeting here.
Morni, a tourist destination in the hills of the Panchkula district, has been added to the list of places where bar licences can be granted to promote tourism and adventure sport. Clubs located anywhere in the state can now seek a bar licence, the statement said.
Bars and retail vends can now have the flexibility to operate longer after payment of additional fees. The basic quota of country liquor and IMFL shall be 1,100 lakh proof litre and 650 lakh proof litre, respectively, which is around 4 per cent higher than the last year.
Besides, there would be no fixed quota of country liquor allotted to distilleries so the licences will have full freedom to choose brands of any distillery.
In the new policy, there is no change in the minimum retail sale price of most brands of country liquor and IMFS.
The licence fee for wholesale of distillers, non-distillers and breweries has been rationalised so that the wholesalers of brands having lesser sales volume will get their licence at a reduced fee.
Also, there will be no increase in excise duty on most IMFL brands. Rather IMFL brands above Rs 5,000 per case shall attract slightly lesser excise duty in order to ward off the challenge coming from a neighbouring state, the statement said.
In order to ward off any possibility of inflow of Imported Foreign Liquor (Bottled In Origin) from one of the neighbouring states, excise duty on whisky and wine is being reduced from Rs 225 per PL/BL to Rs 75 per PL/BL.
The VAT on imported foreign liquor was slashed down from 10 per cent to 3 per cent and reduced from 13-14 per cent to 12 per cent in the case of country liquor, wine, beer and IMFL.
For the second consecutive year, there would be almost no default in payment of licence fee, the statement added.
The excise revenue collections in Financial Year 2021-22 were Rs 7,938.8 crore against Rs 6,791.98 crore in the Financial Year 2020-21, which is 17 per cent higher.
As per the new Policy, in 2022-23, the liquor vends shall be auctioned through e-tender of retail zones (comprising maximum 4 retail shops). (PTI)
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