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No takers for wine shops
No Takers for Wine Shops, Wine Shops in City, Licensing of Liquor Shops. There are five wine shops in Tarnaka, where only one has license and out of four shops in Addagutta two have licenses. However at Muradnagar, there are two shops but there no takers.
81 of 212 wine shops are vacant in the city. Despite tenders being called seven times, there are no takers for the shops. The wine dealers fear heavy licensing fee and exorbitant rents. The excise department handed over 81 shops to APBCL, but officials are having a tough time finding commercial space.
For a state that is infamous for garnering bulk of its revenues from licensing of liquor shops, it is not shocking to hear that out of 212 liquor shops in the city, 81 shops are left unclaimed. It has to be noted that excise department issued tenders seven times since June 2013, but to no avail.
Before one can rejoice that this is due to a decrease in the number of alcoholics, it isn’t the case. The dealers are finding it hard to earn money by getting licenses for setting up wine shops.
There are five wine shops in Tarnaka, where only one has license and out of four shops in Addagutta two have licenses. However at Muradnagar, there are two shops but there no takers.
The dealers are supposed to cough up Rs 1.14 crore upfront as the licensing fee and huge amounts as advance and rent for the shop. Earlier they used to sell liquor above MRP and used to mint money. But off late, with the prohibition and excise department implementing strict rules that liquor has to be sold at MRP, the dealers are incurring loss. Also if the shop is located in a prime area, then exorbitant rents wreck them. If shops are located in remote and non- commercial areas, they suffer from low turnout.
Every year in the month of July, tenders are called for setting up of wine shops. Despite notifications being served seven times, there were no takers. On October 26, the officials at excise department handed over the job for setting up liquor shops to Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Limited (APBCL) for setting up 81 shops. It is interesting to note that APBCL is finding it hard to get commercial space to set up the outlets, despite making public pleas.
Most aren’t ready to rent out their premises, as they fear the nuisance associated with it. They fear the nuisance caused by the tipplers at the shops. Apart from that, if a landlord rents his premises to a liquor shop, the rest of his shops would remain empty as no one prefers to run their business next to a wine shop.
Speaking to Hyderabad Hans, excise superintendent, B Jyothi Prakash said, “We haven’t received any tenders from prospective wine dealers for the 81 shops. It was the same case last year too.” Because of no takers for the shops, the government has lost crores in the form of licensing fee and other taxes.
Sources at APBCL say that they might open shops directly to sell liquor and the onus is on the excise department to figure out commercial space. However, there is no official word from APBCL regarding this.
