The government is working on a new excise policy that is expected to balance the growing chorus for liquor ban in religious places without disturbing the increasing revenue it gets from the sale of liquor. The new policy, likely to be made public by the year-end, is also expected to increase the liquor sale time that was reduced in the state by three hours last year. Relaxing the liquor sale timing, despite a spurt in consumption, seems to be part of the plan to partially balance the likely losses from the expected liquor ban in religious places, people familiar with the matter said. A delegation of liquor sellers recently met excise department officials and came back assured that the sale timings would be relaxed.
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“We have come back with the feeling that the government would consider our demand,” said Kanhaiyalal Maurya of the Lucknow Liquor Association (LLA). Excise department officials too hinted similarly.
“All aspects are being considered and looked upon,” an official said. Last year, the Yogi Adityanath government reviewed 10am11pm sale timings to noon till 10pm. Still, Diwali sales were encouraging this year.“In Lucknow alone, sales worth Rs 15 crore were recorded during the festival against Rs 12 crore sale last year. We also witnessed people gifting scotch and other costly liquor as Diwali gifts,” said Kanhaiyalal Maurya.
The buoyancy in sale wasn’t limited to the festival as excise department records shared by the government show. Twenty crore bulk litres of countrymade liquor were consumed in UP till September this year, overtaking the mimimum guarantee quota (MGQ) of 18.25 crore bulk litres. This was a 30% spurt in consumption over last year when 15.35 crore bulk litres of countrymade liquor was downed.
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Around the same period last year, 7.08 crore bottles of foreign liquor were consumed in the run-up to festival time against 9.26 crore bottles in the same period this year.
Beer consumption went on similar lines — as many as 18.26 crore bottles this time against 16.58 crore bottles last year.“The revenue growth over the 2016-17 was 21%, the highest ever in recent decades,” an excise department official said.It’s in this backdrop that the effect of a likely ban on liquor in religious places might have on revenue is being studied.
Seers from Ayodhya and Mathura have met chief minister Yogi Adityanath on the liquor ban issue.“The CM is ‘favourably inclined’ to banning liquor sale in religious places,” a senior government official said.
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Although excise minister Jai Pratap Singh wasn’t available, his ministerial colleague Shrikant Sharma, also the government spokesman, confirmed: “The government is seriously considering putting a total ban on the sale of meat and liquor in the entire Ayodhya district within a legal framework,” Sharma said, adding similar restrictions were being considered for Mathura. Mahant Kamal Nayan Das of Ayodhya along with Ved Prakash Gupta, the BJP lawmaker from the temple town, and Sharad Sharma, the VHP’s Ayodhyabased spokesman met Adityanath on Wednesday.