Chandrababu Naidu government’s new Liquor Policy came into effect from Tuesday and under this policy new private wine ships will start functioning from October 12. A notification has been released for issuing licenses to a total of 3,396 liquor shops.
The process of accepting applications will start from today. Applications can be made through online or offline. A single person can make any number of applications. A non-refundable fee of Rs 2 lakhs for each is to be paid. Application fee should be paid through debit, credit cards or bank challan. It can be directly present at excise stations along with a DD.
Under the leadership of district collectors, the lottery will be drawn on the 11th of this month and licenses will be given. Licensees can set up new shops from the 12th of this month. Till then, the government-owned liquor shops will continue, though their time limit ended today.
License fees have been finalized in four slabs depending on the population of the area where the liquor stores will be set up. In the first year, the license fee has been fixed at Rs. 50 lakhs in areas with a population of less than 10,000 and Rs. 85 lakhs in areas with a population of more than five lakhs.
In the second year, these fees will be increased at the rate of 19 percent. The license fee is to be paid in six installments annually. A retail licensee will have a margin of 20 percent. In the new system, an opportunity has been provided to upgrade the liquor shops to model stores, except in the municipal corporations.
For this, an additional license fee of Rs. 5 lakhs per year has to be paid. 12 premium stores will be set up in addition to the 3,396 liquor shops notified at present. They have been given the opportunity to set up these in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Rajamahendravaram, Kakinada, Guntur, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur.
These stores have a tenure of five years. The license fee is Rs.1 crore per year. The procedures related to these will be finalized separately. The NDA coalition government has reduced the prices of liquor which were increased wildly during the YSRCP government.
It has been decided that the quarter will be available for 99 rupees only. Ten types of taxes were imposed on alcohol during the previous government, but now it has been reduced to six. A new narcotics control duty will be charged. Rs 100 crores from this will be used for crackdown on ganja and drugs, setting up de-addiction and counseling centers.
The procedures for 340 shops allotted to Geetha workers will be finalized in 2-3 days. In Tirupati, the government restricted certain areas from having liquor shops. From Tirupati Railway Station to Alipiri, the bus stand, Leelamahal Circle, Nandi Circle, Vishnu Niwasam and Srinivasam are not allowed to set up liquor shops. The government has denied permission to set up liquor shops in Leelamahal- Nandisirkel- Alipiri-SVRR hospital-Swims.
