Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha headed the Administrative Council on Friday, which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, and gave its approval to the rolling out of the J&K Excise Policy for the years 2024–25.
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor; Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary; and Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to LG, attended the meeting.
The policy highlights various fees and duties to be implemented in the manufacturing, transport, import, and export of liquor and the checking of the smuggling of narcotic drugs to the UT of J&K from neighbouring states and Union Territories.
The allotment of vends shall be made by e-auction, and the registration fee of Rs 50,000 shall be paid by bidders online through the portal.
The successful bidder will be required to deposit 100 percent of the bid amount through the eGRAS/Easy Collect portal within seven banking days from the date of finalization of the bid.
The vends not allotted for reasons like social pressure, court orders, non-availability of premises, or where no bids have been received shall be put to re-auction.
The new initiative of linkage of minimum reserve bid price with sale potential of each vend has been approved. Lower cap of 15 percent of MSP of liquor for on premises consumption has been fixed.
As notified in the Excise Policy for the years 2023–24, the excise duty on CSD and PAMF shall continue to be 25 percent less than that on civil for all types of liquor manufactured in the J&K, and the import duty shall continue to be 15 percent less than that on civil for all brands of liquor.
Existing licensees having License of bar license with Microbrewery License shall be given License within same premises upon remittance of the requisite license fee and other duties.
There will be complete digitalization in liquor manufacturing, distribution, and sale from production till retail consumption.
For obtaining property certificate and solvency certificate, the vendor must apply within 10 days of the issuance of the license before the concerned Revenue Authority, who shall issue a certificate within a period of one month from the date of receipt of the application and in case of non-disposal of application, the certificate as claimed by the applicant shall be deemed to have been issued by the competent authority.
Any licensee selling liquor above the MRP shall be imposed fine of Rs 40,000 for the first offence and Rs 75,000 for the second offence.