Alcohol will be cheap in Delhi!
The Delhi government is going to change its liquor policy. Especially premium liquor prices will now be brought less than or there than the level of other cities of the National Capital Region (NCR) like Gurugram and Faridabad. The revenue of the Delhi government has fallen for the last few years, so these steps are being taken to increase it. According to government officials, at present, premium liquor prices in Delhi are much higher than NCR. Because of this, people have started going towards the surrounding cities to buy cheap liquor. To prevent this, the government is in the process of making a new policy.
In this connection, an important meeting was also held on Friday, which included many members of the Excise Committee. The chairman of this committee is PWD Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh. Officials say that the draft of this policy will be prepared within the next one month. So far, more than four meetings have been held in this case, of which retail margin, exice duty and Premium brands Important issues like availability of of this have been discussed.
Actually, the Delhi government has fixed a fixed retail margin on liquor prices. A margin of Rs 50 has been imposed on Indian liquor and Rs 100 on foreign liquor. This means that this fixed amount is added to the price of every bottle, which benefits the government. But in cities like Gurugram, shopkeepers decide prices and discounts of their will.
Because of this premium in Gurugram Liquor You get much cheaper than Delhi. For example, if the black label is Rs 3,500 in Delhi, then in Gurugram it is available for just Rs 2,400. Therefore, people of Delhi prefer to go there to get cheap liquor. Government officials say that this fix margin in Delhi keeps the prices of premium brands up, which reduces the sale of these brands. But now it will change, so that this price will be less than Gurugram-Faridabad or equal to there.
Lack of premium brands in Delhi has been a big problem for the last three years. Under the old rules, only government shops can sell liquor, due to which less popular brands are getting more priority. Now the government plans that retail margin should be set properly and popular premium brands should also be made available at all shops. This will not require people to go to Gurugram or Faridabad. The biggest advantage of this will be that the income of the Delhi government will increase and at the same time the sale of liquor will also increase. An official said that this change will bring better options for the revenue of the government as well as consumers.
In the discussion of liquor policy, it was also revealed to reduce the legal age of drinking beer from 25 to 21. But the members of the committee did not approve it, so there will be no change in the legal age at the moment. Apart from this, a big decision may be that private liquor shops should be reopened, as it used to be before November 2021. The government is also planning that premium brands are easily available at all outlets. Let us tell you that more than 700 liquor shops are running under four government corporations in Delhi.
