Gurgaon: After 40 days of closure, liquor shops in Haryana are set to open from Wednesday. The rates will be higher than those detailed in the excise policy announced in February this year as the Khattar government has already announced its decision to impose “Covid cess” on the sale of liquor. For this, the Haryana cabinet on Tuesday approved a revised excise policy for the state.
The retail liquor vends would be allowed to operate in all the districts except containment zones. However, no liquor vend will be permitted to operate in shopping malls anywhere in the state.
The government has also restricted the timings for sale of liquor — it will be available between 7 am and 7 pm in urban and rural areas. In Gurgaon, liquor shops will be open from 8am to 6.45pm.
“The liquor shops will open from Wednesday and they will have to follow social distancing,” said deputy excise and taxation commissioner, HC Dahiya. Elaborating about the guidelines he said liquor vends could not have more than five salesmen and all of them will have to wear face mask and use sanitisers.
Like Delhi and other parts of the country, Gurgaon is also anticipating queues outside the liquor vends and to deal with the situation teams of excise department police will be on vigil.
A representative of Discovery Wines said they have made all arrangements to ensure social distancing. “We have made marking outside the shops and at some places installed bamboo barricades to ensure social distancing,” he said. The liquor vends will avoid cash payments and most of the payments will be taken through cards or mobile wallet.
The revised excise policy for 2020-21 would come into force from Wednesday and the financial year for the purpose of the excise policy has been extended till May 19, 2021. This decision was taken as there was no sale of liquor for more than a month due to lockdown in the state.
To compensate the loss for licence allotees, Haryana has also decided not to charge any licence fee for the period when the retail liquor vends remained closed due to nationwide lockdown ie from April 1 to May 5.
In another concession, the state government has decided give 10-day period — May 6 till May 15 — to set up their vends/warehouses throughout the state. Thus, the excise licences throughout Haryana would be valid for 375 days instead of normal 365 days up to May 15, 2021. If the government announces lockdown in whole state or in certain pockets, resulting in closure of retail vends, in such cases the licence fee and the quota for such period will be proportionately exempted by the excise and taxation commissioner (ETC), Haryana.
(With inputs from Ajay Sura in Chandigarh)
The retail liquor vends would be allowed to operate in all the districts except containment zones. However, no liquor vend will be permitted to operate in shopping malls anywhere in the state.
The government has also restricted the timings for sale of liquor — it will be available between 7 am and 7 pm in urban and rural areas. In Gurgaon, liquor shops will be open from 8am to 6.45pm.
“The liquor shops will open from Wednesday and they will have to follow social distancing,” said deputy excise and taxation commissioner, HC Dahiya. Elaborating about the guidelines he said liquor vends could not have more than five salesmen and all of them will have to wear face mask and use sanitisers.
Like Delhi and other parts of the country, Gurgaon is also anticipating queues outside the liquor vends and to deal with the situation teams of excise department police will be on vigil.
A representative of Discovery Wines said they have made all arrangements to ensure social distancing. “We have made marking outside the shops and at some places installed bamboo barricades to ensure social distancing,” he said. The liquor vends will avoid cash payments and most of the payments will be taken through cards or mobile wallet.
The revised excise policy for 2020-21 would come into force from Wednesday and the financial year for the purpose of the excise policy has been extended till May 19, 2021. This decision was taken as there was no sale of liquor for more than a month due to lockdown in the state.
To compensate the loss for licence allotees, Haryana has also decided not to charge any licence fee for the period when the retail liquor vends remained closed due to nationwide lockdown ie from April 1 to May 5.
In another concession, the state government has decided give 10-day period — May 6 till May 15 — to set up their vends/warehouses throughout the state. Thus, the excise licences throughout Haryana would be valid for 375 days instead of normal 365 days up to May 15, 2021. If the government announces lockdown in whole state or in certain pockets, resulting in closure of retail vends, in such cases the licence fee and the quota for such period will be proportionately exempted by the excise and taxation commissioner (ETC), Haryana.
(With inputs from Ajay Sura in Chandigarh)
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