Liquor money to fatten TG govt coffers

Hyderabad: The state government is getting ready to rake in huge funds through auctioning of licensed liquor shops across the state soon. Enhancement of application fee and licence fee for liquor shops for a period of two years is on the agenda under the new Excise Policy -2025.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will hold a high-level review of the Excise Department by the end of August and take a slew of important decisions to boost revenue from liquor trade. However, liquor prices at retail liquor outlets will remain the same, considering that the government recently hiked the prices of beer, cheap liquor, and premium liquor.

The State Excise and Prohibition Department has prepared and submitted to the government a report on increasing revenues through liquor sales. Officials said that under the new excise policy, the Excise Department has proposed to increase the non-refundable application fee to Rs 3 lakh as against Rs 2 lakh collected during the last auction in 2023. The two-year term of the licensed liquor shops would end in November this year.

Officials said that the government had decided to invite applications for new licences two months in advance i.e. in September in view of the requirement of funds for welfare and developmental programmes. The government raked in moolah of more than Rs 2,000 crore in 2023 from the sale of applications alone. This time, the excise wing is targeting to earn nearly Rs 3,000 crore under this head.

Officials said that the government was planning to increase the licence fee by at least 20 per cent in the Greater Hyderabad limits and 10 per cent in other urban areas in the state. The government has been collecting Rs 1 crore as licence fee from liquor shop owners in Hyderabad every year. Now, it would be increased to Rs 1.20 crore. The Excise wing scrutinized annual turnover of all licenced wine shops.