Delhi ministers meet to discuss revamp of excise policy

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government is studying the excise policies of other states and planning to incorporate their best practices into Delhi’s excise guidelines, according to sources. The AAP government is looking to revamp the state’s excise policy with an aim to substantially increase its revenue.

The special Group of Ministers (GoM) overseeing the entire revision process held an important meeting in this regard on Tuesday. 

Earlier this month, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that the Delhi government will present a ‘model’ excise policy in the country on which three cabinet ministers assisted by experts will be working on.

The government is studying all aspects of wholesale and retail liquor set up in states like Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Information is being collected from excise commissioners about liquor vends, license fee, allotment system, the period of allotment among other details. 

The job of the GoM, which will finalise the policy soon, is to examine all the aspects of the current system of excise duty administration, report of the expert committee and the suggestions received from the stakeholders and suggest a new Excise Policy to the cabinet of ministers. 

Last year, the Delhi government had invited comments from the public on the report of the expert committee on excise policy and  received more than 14,000 suggestions.

The two main priorities of the expert committee are ways for augmenting the State Excise Duty revenue and simplifying the liquor pricing mechanism. The new excise policy would also find ways into checking malpractices and evasion of duty in the liquor trade and to ensure equitable access to liquor supply.

The GoM is headed by deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, along with health minister Satyendar Jain and law minister Kailash Gahlot. The excise department is one of the biggest sources of revenue for the Delhi government. Delhi was one of the first to re-open liquor vends during the Covid lockdown.