Chandigarh: Only 5 of 29 liquor vends allotted in fifth round of auction

UT excise and taxation department’s fifth attempt to auction unsold liquor vends also proved to be a damp squib, with only four of 29 vends finding takers.

For the fifth round of auctions, the department had slashed the reserve price further by 9% to 15%, hoping to elicit better response.

But as 25 of total 95 liquor vends still went unsold, the department will go for a sixth round on April 11 after reducing the reserve price further by 12% to 20%.

Last year, the department had held seven auctions, yet three of the 96 vends went unsold.

At Thursday’s auction, the liquor vend in Sector 47-C fetched the highest bid of ₹7 crore against the reserve price of ₹6.73 crore. The other vends auctioned are located at the Sector-7 market, Sector-25 market and Sector 44-D. The department earned ₹20.40 crore against the reserve price of ₹19.90 crore.

Liquor contractors have maintained that the poor response to the auctions is due to the Punjab excise policy offering more perks than that rolled out by Chandigarh.

A liquor vend contractor, who didn’t wish to be named, said the VAT in Punjab was 1% of the ex-distillery price (EDP), compared to a much steeper 12.5% VAT in Chandigarh.

Another reason for contractors’ exodus from Chandigarh is the excise fee, which is 1% in Punjab, but ranges between ₹445 and ₹3,500 per case in the UT.

Contractors have also blamed UT for fixing quota at 18 lakh liquor boxes a year, which means unlifted liquor cases will lead to a penalty. The penalty is ₹900 per case for Indian made foreign liquor and ₹3,500 per case for foreign liquor. In contrast, Punjab has an open quota with no compulsion.

They have also cited the higher licence fee in Chandigarh for the poor response, which is ₹6 crore on an average compared to ₹1.5 crore to ₹2 crore in Punjab.