Bar codes on liquor bottles: UP govt announces new policy, hikes licence fee
Beer shops will now be able to sell winesThe licence fee has also been hiked
Lucknow: The licence fee for countrymade liquor in Uttar Pradesh has been increased by 10%, for beer by 15% and for foreign liquor by 20%. The decision was taken on Tuesday during a state cabinet meeting that gave its nod to the 2020-21 excise policy.
"The government has made a simple and transparent excise policy. Renewal of licences will be done through e-lottery. Under the new policy, one person will be allowed to have only two shops in the state," Principal Secretary, Excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy said while briefing reporters at a press conference here after the Cabinet meeting.
"The beer shops will now be able to sell wines. Licence fee will be charged to serve liquor in luxury trains and cruises within the state boundary, which was free earlier. Licences will be given to airport lounges and hotels located outside the airport where flight passengers stay," he said.
Bar codes will be put on all liquor bottles so that consumers can check whether liquor is real or not, he said.
Bhoosreddy also said the licence fee to serve liquor in hotels located in small towns will be ₹2.5 lakh per year. Till now this facility was not available in small towns.
The annual licence fee to serve liquor in a 50-room hotel has been fixed at ₹10 lakh for category-1 cities (hotels/restaurants and clubs in Gautambuddhnagar, Ghaziabad district, municipal corporation area of Kanpur Nagar, Agra, Prayagraj, Lucknow and Varanasi.
The licence fee for category-2 cities has been fixed at ₹7.50 lakh. This includes municipal corporation areas of Bareily, Aligarh, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Mathura, Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Ayodhya and Firozabad.
The licence fee for category-3 cities is ₹5 lakh, while for category-4 cities, it is ₹2.50 lakh, he said.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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