Select restaurants may sell wine & beer

Thiruvananthapuram: The stage will soon be set for issuing licences to independent restaurants for selling beer and wine at 44 tourism destinations across the state. The taxes department has asked the tourism department for a list of destinations to be notified by the taxes department as tourism destinations, for granting FL-11 (beer and wine) licences.
Once cleared, there will be 61 such notified centres in the state where independent restaurants can run beer and wine parlours too. There are provisions under foreign liquor rules by which a restaurant in a tourism area notified by the excise department can be issued FL-11 licence, provided such restaurants get classified as one-star or above by the state tourism department. According to rule 13(11) of the Foreign Liquor Rules, 1963, “FL-11 licence shall also be granted to the restaurants classified by department of tourism (of the state), restaurants approved by ministry of tourism (of the Centre), and hotels having one or two classification of the ministry of tourism in tourist centres approved by the government”.
Presently, under this rule, the excise department provides licences for operating beer and wine parlours for independent restaurants in its 17 declared tourism zones. However, the existing notified areas does not serve the purpose, sources say. “The existing classification of tourism zones itself is illogical. Several places like Alappuzha, eligible to be tourism zones, have been left out of the purview of the tourism zone. Also, some restaurants serve liquor and beer covertly to customers, especially during peak seasons in such unnotified areas. It is actually loss of revenue for the government and can be plugged if more areas are included in it and licences are issued,” said a government official.
The government had previously considered a proposal to allow premium restaurants in tourism zones to run a bar along with it. But this had not materialized. Presently, there are about 300 beer and wine parlours and 603 bar hotels in the state.