Govt notifies Excise Policy 2024-25
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Feb 1: As the Government of Jammu and Kashmir today notified the new Excise Policy for the year 2024-25, several initiatives have been introduced for the revenue generation without increasing the existing number of retail liquor vends across the Union Territory.
As per the new Excise Policy, which comes into force on April 1, 2024, new initiative of linking the Minimum Reserve Bid Price with the sale potential of each Liquor vend has been introduced.
Further, there will be increase in the Bottling Fee, Excise Duty and Assessment Duty, while lower cap of 15 percent of Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of liquor for on premises consumption has been fixed.
Introduction of extended hours for serving liquor in the Hotel Premises/social occasions on payment of permission fee of Rs 3,000/- per hour for each occasion, enhancement of permission fee for social occasions to Rs 10,000/- after five permissions within the same premises are among the other measures introduced in the new Excise Police for the revenue generation.
Bottling Fee shall be increased and in respect of franchise brands upto Economy segment , it will be Rs 16.00/750 ml, above economy segment Rs 17.00/750 ml and JKSW-Rs 10/750 ml.
Similarly, Excise Duty shall be increased and levied for Deluxe/Super deluxe-Rs 300/LPL; premium/medium- 285/LPL; economy-275/LPL; low cost-255/LPL and JKSW- 250 while Assessment Duty shall be increased for Type A – Rs 20/ 750 ml (IMFL), Rs 16 for JKSW and Rs 15 for Beer/Wine/ RTD; Type B- Rs 64/ 750 ml (IMFL), Rs 32 for JKSW and Rs 27 for Beer Wine RTD.
To ensure regulation of Liquor consumption on social occasions in commercial establishments viz. Banquet Halls, Hotels, Restaurants, Clubs etc, without prior permission, a penalty of Rs 30,000/- for 1st offence followed by Rs 50,000/- for 2nd offence and Rs 1.00 lakh for every next violation shall be imposed on the defaulting establishment.
In case of violation of the provision of offering Digital Payments, a penalty of Rs 10000/- per incident shall be imposed on the licensee while the salesman shall wear uniform having name plate with Registration/approval number.
All retail vends shall maintain a minimum stock of liquor (of high selling brands) to last for atleast one week at the vend at a given point of time. Any less maintenance of stock would attract penalty @ Rs 5000/- for each violation.
The H1 bidder(s) who had failed to deposit the bid amount in the auction held in the year 2021-22 onwards, shall be ineligible to participate in the e-auction for the year 2024-25.
In case, the successful bidder had been the defaulter of the Excise Department in terms of non-payment of bid price during the previous e-auctions for allotment of JKEL-2 vends held from 2021-22 onwards, his EMD and bid amount shall be forfeited.
Even as the number of liquor vends across J&K has been proposed to remain the same, there is provision in the new Excise Policy for opening liquor vends at tourist places and place of illicit distillation.
The department shall offer setting up of liquor vends having high revenue potential in tourist locations in the Government owned/maintained tourist facilities of JKTDC/Tourism department wherever possible.
Also, to ensure against any Hooch tragedy, the Excise Commissioner shall have an absolute right to open the liquor vend through e-auction at such places where atleast three FIRs have been lodged with the concerned Police Station for illicit distillation/illegal sale of liquor.
For ease of doing business, the new Excise Police envisages that on request, the existing licensee having License of Beer Bar with Microbrewery (JKEL-7D), License of retail vend of foreign liquor in a bar ((JKEL-4) shall be given within same premises on remittance of requisite license fee and other duties.
The feature has been introduced to lessen the burden of licensee in arranging for same documents for getting Bar License within same premises having fulfilled all the requisite documentation in grant of Beer Bar License.
In order to discourage monopolistic trade practices and conflict of interest in liquor trade, all the manufacturing units shall henceforth be ineligible to hold the wholesale or retail license.
As per the new policy, liquor shall not be sold in plastic bottles being against the environment protection laws. All kinds of liquor shall be sold in glass bottles/PET bottles and tin case only.
The successful bidder will be required to deposit 100% of the bid amount through eGRAS/Easy Collect portal within seven banking days from the date of finalization of the bid. The vends not allotted for reasons like social pressure, court orders or non availability of premises or where no bids have been received shall be put to re-auction.
Excise Duty on CSD/ PAMF shall continue to be 25 percent less than that on civil for all types of liquor manufactured in the UT of J&K and the import duty shall continue to be 15 percent less than that on civil for all brands of liquor.
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