Chandigarh: Rs 4 crore in 4 days in liquor licence fee

CHANDIGARH: With the UT administration allowing serving of liquor in five star hotels, pubs, bars out of the 110-odd liquor licence holders in the city, 70 have already deposited the licence fee.
Following the announcement allowing the serving of liquor, the UT excise department in the last four working days earned over Rs 4 crore in licence fee. Besides, the department is set to get more revenue from various entailing charges, including assessment fee, excise duty, permit fee and 12% value added tax (VAT) on sale and service of the liquor.
“After the announcement of Unlock 4.0, we started giving permission since Tuesday and in the last four working days till Friday, we issued permission to 70 liquor licence holders of the city. Since the process has been simplified to apply without any physical interaction, the licence holders are also finding it easy to obtain the permission in a hassle-free manner,” an official said.
The excise official revealed that since liquor is the main source of earning of the bars, restaurants, pubs etc, they lost huge income due to closure of their commercial establishments during the curfew and subsequent lockdown in the past over five months.
“Since many buildings of these commercial establishments are on rent, they were not in a position to retain staff and pay their salaries. But, as liquor serving has been allowed, they want to revive their business at the earliest, and therefore, they want to take permission as soon as possible,” he said.