Auction of liquor shops fetched Rs 520 crore: Sukhwinder Sukhu

The Himachal Government has registered a 40 per cent increase in revenue from the open sale of liquor shops for 2023-24 and earned Rs 520 crore more, said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in a statement made in the Vidhan Sabha today.

He said, “The previous government renewed the licences of liquor vends by charging a mere 10 per cent higher fee instead of auctioning these in the past four years.” He added that the auction of liquor vends fetched Rs 1,815 crore for 2023-24 compared to Rs 1,296 crore in 2022-23, an increase of Rs 520 crore in revenue.

Sukhu said that the auction-cum-tendering of liquor vends generated a 40 per cent higher revenue. “The highest increase of 66 .05 per cent in revenue was recorded in Kinnaur, followed by 59.66 per cent in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area and 52.63 per cent in Una,” he added.

He said that the liquor vends were allotted on March 16, 17 and 18, as per the Excise Policy approved by the Cabinet. “Had our government followed the same policy of renewing the licences of liquor vends at a 10 per cent higher fee, the state would have lost Rs 370 crore in revenue,” he added.

The Chief Minister said that the estimated revenue for 2022-23, as per the Excise Policy, was Rs 2,357 crore but the auction fetched 2,800 crore in 2023-24.

Sukhu said that the imposition of a milk cess of Rs 10 per liquor bottle would generate an additional revenue of Rs 100 crore.