Booze prices to go up by 25 per cent in Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: Prices of premium brands of whisky will increase by 20% to 25%, rates of beer and wine will remain unchanged and those of beer at microbrewery will go down, according to the new excise policy released by the UT administration on Friday.

Despite the hike, prices of liquor in Chandigarh will still be cheaper in comparison to neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.


The new policy will come into force from April 1.

Sat Pal, president, Chandigarh Wine Merchants Association, said the actual pricing will be fixed once the vends will be allotted to liquor vend owners through auction by the administration. He clarified that as excise levy on IMFL increased by 20%, the selling price of liquor will go up by around 20% to 25%. However, he is still waiting for a complete copy of the policy.

According to the administration, the new policy would help it earn revenue of Rs 600 crore as compared to Rs 510 crore last year, an increase of 18%. Under the new policy, excise levies on country liquor have been increased by 17% and excise levies on Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by 20%. To promote low alcoholic contents beverages like beer and wine and to boost Indian wine industry, the licence fee has not been increased and kept at Rs 12,000 for the year. Further, the label registration fee of wine has been reduced from Rs 15,000 per brand to Rs 10,000 per brand. The policy said the excise duty of microbrewery has been reduced from Rs 50 per bulk litre to Rs 30 per bulk litre to shift consumers from hard to soft liquor.