New Himachal excise policy to collect Rs 1840 crore

Shimla The new excise policy of Himachal Pradesh aims to collect Rs 1840 crore in the next fiscal year. This is Rs 215 crore higher than last year.

The state cabinet also gave its approval for renewal of the Retail Excise Vends in the for the year 2020-21. The new Excise Policy also allows 30 percent of the Country Liquor quota for the liquor manufacturers,bottlers to be supplied to retail licensees. The remaining 70 percent quota can be lifted by the retail licensees from the suppliers of their choice.

The new policy also envisages taking FDR/Bank Guarantee from the retail licensees as security in lieu of security in  a shape of property in order to secure the revenue of the government.

From the next financial year all the imported liquor in the state will be supplied by public custom bonded ware houses located in Himachal.The policy also extended operational timings of the bars in all star related hotels and bars in specified important tourist areas from 12 noon to 2 am past midnight.

The Cabinet also gave its approval for the H.P. Toll Policy for the next fiscal year.Under this policy, option has been made for renewal of their lease after paying renewal fee of one percent for the year and an increase of 10 percent over the current fiscal.

Due to this new Toll Policy the revenue to be collected during the year 2020-21 will be Rs 106 crore, which will be Rs 9.5 crore more than the toll revenue estimated for the year 2019-20, giving an overall increase of about 10 percent.  

It also gave approval for capacity expansion of Distillery from 45 KL per day to 85 KL per day in favour of Premier Alcobev Private Sansarpur Terrace in Kangra district. The state would earn an additional excise revenue of Rs 18 to 20 crore per annum.