HYDERABAD: The state government has initiated the process to launch its new excise policy on December 1.
Excise commissioner Sarfaraz Ahmad held a video conference with senior officials of the department from all the districts on Saturday to discuss about the policy.
The government comes out with a new excise policy every two years.
The existing policy for 2019-2021 expires on November 30. Although the current policy ended on October 31, the government extended it by a month after liquor dealers sought exemption citing loss of working days due to Covid lockdowns and restrictions from 2020 March. Under the new excise policy, the government issues licences to dealers to run liquor shops for a period of two years.
The government recently decided to implement 15 per cent reservations for Backward Classes, 10 per cent for Scheduled Castes and five per cent for Scheduled Tribes in allotment of liquor shops as part of the new excise policy.
Official sources said the government aims to earn more revenue through liquor sales. Accordingly, it wants to increase liquor shops by permitting an additional 350 shops over the existing 2,216. The existing shops in Telangana were finalised in the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Since there is huge demand for liquor due to increased population in municipal corporations and municipalities across the state over the years, the government plans to increase liquor shops to meet the demand.
The state government had earlier in January this year permitted 159 additional bars across the state to the already existing 800 bars and 27 clubs that serve liquor. The state government’s earnings through liquor more than doubled since the formation of Telangana in 2014. In the first year of formation of state, the government earned excise revenue of Rs 10,813 crore in 2014-15, an increase of Rs 1,000 crore compared with Rs 9,800 crore earned in 2013-14, a year before the formation of the state.
It further increased to Rs 20,000 crore in 2018 and Rs 25,000 crore in 2019. By 2020, the excise revenues touched Rs 30,000 crore. The excise revenue contribution to the overall state revenue was just 26 per cent in 2013-14, a year prior to formation of TS. It rose sharply by 65 per cent after the formation of Telangana, clearly reflecting how the TS government was eyeing more revenue through liquor.
