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Moneyed class from AP eyes liquor trade in TS
Realtors and financiers from Andhra Pradesh are bracing themselves for grabbing liquor trade in Telangana State as the existing dealers are too scared to continue in the business in the wake of steep hike in licence fee. The Telangana State government has announced a steep increase in licence fee for liquor outlets under the new Excise Policy 2015-17.
Hyderabad: Realtors and financiers from Andhra Pradesh are bracing themselves for grabbing liquor trade in Telangana State as the existing dealers are too scared to continue in the business in the wake of steep hike in licence fee. The Telangana State government has announced a steep increase in licence fee for liquor outlets under the new Excise Policy 2015-17.
According to sources in the liquor industry, the abnormal rise in licence fee by 20 per cent is likely to scare away most of the existing dealers from the trade. Dealers fear that the returns on the trade may not be commensurate with the investment. Over 60 per cent of the existing licence holders have already lost hope of continuing in the trade.
In Hyderabad, wine dealers have already got bogged down in debt trap as they were forced to pay heavy license fee of Rs 90 lakh a year. The increase of the fee to Rs 1.08 crore per year under the new Excise Policy is feared to cause additional burden to the dealers. As many as 350 dealers in the city poured out their woes to the Excise and Prohibition minister T Padma Rao and appealed to him to reduce the licence fee.
Sources in the trade said the realtors and financiers from Andhra Pradesh had got in touch with the liquor dealers in Telangana State to get into the trade. They expressed their readiness to join hands with the existing dealers to do the business. Some of the rich merchants from AP have already made arrangements to file applications for liquor outlets.
Telangana Wine Dealers Association leader D Venkateswara Rao said the increase in the licence fee has given an opportunity to outside investors to open liquor shops in Telangana State. Realty boom in Vijayawada and the surrounding districts of the new capital city of AP has led to increase in money circulation. It has encouraged the rich from AP to invest in Telangana State, he said.
It is learnt that realtors from Krishna and Guntur districts have approached the wine dealers in Nalgonda, Khammam districts. Financiers from Rayalaseema are holding talks with wine dealers in Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts. Businessmen from East and West Godavari districts contacted the district wine dealers associations of Nizamabad, Medak and Karimangar to open liquor outlets on profit-sharing basis.
By:Patan Afzal Babu
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