Notification on liquor permits likely next week

AHMEDABAD: While the new norms governing the issue of liquor permits for health reasons were announced during the two-day assembly session in September, those wanting permits will have to wait a little longer. The government is waiting to issue a fresh notification on the procedure, for which only the clearing of objections procedure is pending.
A senior home department official — who declined to elaborate on what objections were brought up — said the notification will likely be issued next week. Changed government processes must be notified within 30 days of them being announced.

Sources in the home department said that while the Rs 50 form fee has been scrapped, the medical check-up fees have been raised from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000. The main concern for permit holders or applicants remains the introduction of a new Rs 2,000 processing fee.

Just before the new rules for liquor permits were announced, hoteliers across Gujarat made a representation to the state government, urging it to speed up the renewal of permits. The hoteliers had also supplied their suggestions, citing the impact of delays in issuing permits.

“Before the new rules were framed, we requested the state government to issue permits to those whose applications had been approved. As are permits getting expensive and are not being renewed on time, bootleggers are gaining business. On the other hand, the government is losing revenue due to the delay in issuing fresh permits and renewing old ones,” said a city-based hotelier, on condition of anonymity.

“Sales at permit liquor stores have declined significantly in the last few months, ever since liquor got more expensive. We are also losing corporate events business to other states because of this,” the hotelier added. The government had suspended the issuing and renewal of liquor permits granted for health reasons in March 2018. Of the 72,000 liquor permits in the state, about 40,000 have been granted for health reasons.