Hyderabad: Following Haryana, the Andhra Pradesh government is set to legalise belt shops. It is also considering to give licenses to existing liquor shops to open “sub-shops” at nearby villages.
After bifurcation, the state’s revenue from Excise has been going down every month. And as a part of mobilising additional revenue, the state government is concentrated on enhancing the income of the department.
Acting according to the poll promise made by the Telugu Desam party, after coming to power the TD government had closed 1,100 belt shops. It is, however, now granting permissions to open sub- shops.
In Haryana, every liquor shop has been given permission to open two sub-shops in villages. After studying the Haryana system, the AP government has decided to follow the same system.
The AP excise department had sent proposals to the finance department on “enhancing of capacity”, proposing to give permission to distilleries to enhance their capacity of production, setting up new distilleries, enhancing the quota of liquor shops and permission to open sub-liquor shops.
Sources said, the finance department has approved the proposals. Getting a go-ahead in this regard, the excise department is currently working out the modalities.
At present there are 4,600 liquor shops in Andhra Pradesh. If the state government decides to give permissions to existing liquor shops to open two or three sub-shops, it will collect separate license fees for each sub-shop, which fill the state coffers with additional revenue.
With each existing liquor shop getting two sub-shops, the state will have around 9,000 new liquor shops in villages. It will bring the total number of liquor shops to around 13,600 in the state.
Apart from approving belt-shops, the state government is also planning to hike liquor and beer prices to ensure more revenues.
The Wine Dealers’ Association had requested the government to increase the price of beer by Rs 10.
However, the officials indicated that the government might increase it by Rs 5. At present, a bottle of lager beer costs '85 and strong beer costs '95. The government is also thinking of increasing liquor price.
After working out the proposals, the excise department will send the same to the government for final approval. After the final nod, the new policy and the new prices will be implemented.
