Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu clarified that the health of the people should be considered more important than the state government’s income with the liquor policy. He said that the health of alcohol consumers can be protected to a large extent by using alcohol with low alcohol content.
He decided to implement the new liquor policy by correcting the shortcomings, considering the fact that lakhs of families suffered losses due to poor quality liquor during the previous government’s tenure. The CM also ordered that 10 percent of bars should be allocated to the Scheduled Castes in the bar policy.
The CM, along with Ministers Kollu Ravindra and Kondapalli Srinivas and officials, conducted a high-level review of the Excise Department at the Secretariat. The officials explained the proposals to the CM as the new policy was to come out from September 1 after the expiry of the current bar policy.
Later, the CM said that the new policy has been formulated based on the report and proposals given by the cabinet sub-committee. Currently, there are 840 bars in the state. In the new policy, permissions for bars will be given through a lottery method.
The Cabinet sub-committee has suggested that the license fee be set at Rs. 35 lakh if the population is less than 50,000, Rs. 55 lakh if the population is less than 5 lakh, and then Rs. 75 lakh if the population is more than 5 lakh.
Officials have estimated that the new policy will generate an income of Rs. 700 crore through application fee and license fee. A provision will be introduced for each bar to receive at least 4 applications.
Officials explained to the CM the reasons for the increase in liquor sales across the borders within neighboring states, due to the reduction in rates in AP, availability of all brands, and availability of quality liquor, liquor consumers from our state are buying liquor here.
They recalled that in the past, people used to go to neighboring states to drink liquor due to the lack of quality liquor in AP, high prices, and unavailability of good brands. Officials have alleged that illegal traders bring liquor from other states to make money from this. They revealed that the problem has now been resolved. Officials explained that about 12 districts have been declared completely ID liquor-free districts.
