Beer soon to be found in shop next door, says draft policy

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 22: Beer will be available at departmental stores in the city and liquor shops will reopen at the Delhi Border, if the...

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 22: Beer will be available at departmental stores in the city and liquor shops will reopen at the Delhi Border, if the Delhi Cabinet approves the draft excise policy. The policy, which is being prepared by the Excise Department, if passed, will be implemented from March 31.

A pathbreaking suggestion is to make beer available at departmental stores across the Capital. At present, beer is sold at the 224 outlets of the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation. This is perceived to be too few for the 1.25 crore population. “This should basically help the middle class, because when they go to buy their groceries or vegetables, they can also shop for beer,” says an official working on the draft.

Another proposal is to drastically cut taxes on beer and correspondingly increase taxes on hard liquor. “This should shift the emphasis from hard liquor to beer, which is the trend in the western societies. Of course, it is also better for health of the drinker, as compared to hard liquor,” saysthe official.

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The Delhi Government collects an average revenue of Rs 12 crore per month on liquor sale, which witnesses a normal’ increase of 10 per cent every year. A cut in beer prices is believed to boost the revenue.

A similar proposal was shot down by the earlier BJP Government, which believed that it “would increase alcoholism”.

Departmental stores that want to sell beer will have to apply for a special permit, the details of which are yet to be finalised. According to the guidelines, no liquor vend can be set up within 75 metres from any place of worship. An official says this could be a problem in the case of departmental stores. “In most cases, while the liquor vends are legal structures, the places of worship have been illegally occupied,” he says.

The draft excise policy, which is yet to be submitted to the concerned minister, proposes to undo several decisions of the Madan Lal Khurana Government. For instance, the draft talks about ending the five-km liquor-free corridor betweenHaryana and Delhi. The corridor was to help the Haryana Government implement its prohibition in July 1996. The Haryana request cost the Delhi Government 10 vends along the border.

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While Haryana lifted prohibition in April 1998, the BJP did not let the shops open. According to officials in the Revenue Department, the delay in taking the decision cost the Delhi Government an estimated Rs 10 crore till December.

The Congress Government has also dropped the idea of removing churches from the list of places of worship. Former Excise Minister Rajendra Gupta mooted the idea, which was exclusively reported in The Indian Express. This created a furore in the Parliament and outside.