Himachal cabinet approves new excise policy for 2022-23; targets ₹2,131-crore revenue

The Himachal Pradesh cabinet on Sunday approved the excise policy for the current fiscal year which envisages collection of ₹2,131 crore revenue during the year.

The approval was also given for the renewal of retail excise vends in the state for the financial year 2022-23 at the renewal fee of 4% of the value of unit vend. The objective is to gain adequate enhancement in government revenue and curb the smuggling of country liquor from the neighbouring states by a reduction in its price.

The brands of country liquor will be cheaper as licence fee has been reduced. This will help in providing good quality liquor at a cheaper rate to consumers and they won’t be tempted towards purchasing illicit liquor and evasion of duty will also be checked.

In the new excise policy, the 15% fixed quota of country liquor for manufacturers and bottlers to be supplied to the retail licensees has been abolished. This step will give the retail licensees to lift their quota from suppliers of their choice and further assure the supply of good quality country liquor at competitive prices. The MRP of country liquor will be cheaper by 16% of the existing price.

In this year’s policy, to provide more funds for the welfare of “Gau Vansh”, the Gaudhan Vikas Nidhi Fund has been enhanced from the existing ₹1.50 to ₹2.50.

The fixed annual licence fee of bars has been rationalised by abolishing the area-specific slabs of licence fee. Now throughout the state, there will be uniform licence slabs based on the room capacity in hotels.

To provide better facilities to tourists visiting tribal areas and also provide relief to hotel entrepreneurs, the rates of an annual fixed licence fee of bars in the tribal areas have been reduced considerably.

In order to monitor the manufacturing, operations of liquor, its dispatch to wholesalers and subsequent sale to retailers, it has been made mandatory for all above stakeholders to install CCTV cameras at their establishments.

Keeping in view recent irregularities detected by the department in liquor bottling plants, wholesale vends and retail vends, the penalty provisions under the HP Excise Act, 2011, have been made more stringent.

An effective end-to-end online excise administration system shall be set up in the state which shall include the facility of track and trace of liquor bottles, besides other modules for real-time monitoring.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to the HP State Toll Policy for 2022-23 which envisages auction-cum-tender for all the toll barriers in the state. During 2021-22, toll revenue has registered growth of 20 percent of the previous year’s revenue.

It gave a nod to amend the Himachal Pradesh Disaster Relief Manual-2012 to include deaths due to biting of honeybees, hornets and wasps, accidental drowning and deaths due to accidents of vehicles (including land, water and air) under this manual.