Delhi govt mulls bringing back private liquor vends under new excise policy
Private players could make a comeback in Delhi's liquor shops.
The Delhi BJP government, which is preparing a new excise policy, is considering reintroducing private liquor shops in the Capital — just as it was in the old excise regime before 2021.
The government plans to implement the new policy by July 1 with an aim to increase revenue, curb corruption and bring transparency.
According to sources, the government is likely to provide licences to private players to provide a good walk-in experience for customers.
'About 100-150 private liquor shops, mostly in malls and other premium locations, are being considered. The numbers will be finalised once the policy is ready. The modalities of how to issue the licence, whether through an e-auction or e-lottery, are currently being discussed. A meeting of a high-level committee set up to prepare the policy, which is headed by the Chief Secretary, was also held on Friday. Issues such as the number of shops, licensing, etc, were discussed,' sources said.
Under the pre-2021 policy, both government and private liquor shops operated in Delhi.
In November 2021, the government — the AAP was in power at the time — had exited the liquor business and handed things over to private vendors, with an aim to cut down corruption. The policy soon ran into controversy and investigations by multiple agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In 2022, the government scrapped this policy and brought back the old excise regime — but only liquor shops run by government corporations were allowed to operate. Almost all top AAP — including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia — were jailed in the case.
Currently, a major issue facing Delhi is the unavailability of popular and good quality brands of whisky, beer, vodka, gin, and several others.
'Some popular brands are not in Delhi as their parent company was blacklisted from selling liquor in the national capital following complaints of irregularities and court cases during the implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy… Less popular brands have entered the scene, which has pushed customers to neighbouring states… The government is planning to increase the availability of popular brands and is likely to reintroduce some that are currently not available in Delhi shops…,' said sources.
Popular choices like Chivas Regal, Blenders Pride and Royal Stag, part of the Pernod Ricard brand, are not available in Delhi. Pernod Ricard India's application for an L-1 licence was rejected earlier. Benoy Babu, a regional manager at PRI, was a witness in the CBI's excise case. Babu was eventually arrested by the ED.
Meanwhile, discussions on rationalising brand licence fees and retail margins are also underway, said sources, adding that excise duty and retail licensing are also likely to be increased under the new policy.
'The retail margin cap is Rs 50 for Indian-Made Foreign Liquor and Rs 100 for foreign liquor. This is on a per-bottle basis. Government-run shops have monopolised the retail business by pushing less popular brands at the range of Rs 400 to Rs 600, instead of stocking premium brands. Also, cheaper brands sell fast… Thus, discussions are on to rationalise these margins to increase revenue as well as make premium brands available for customers,' said sources.
Industry sources said private retailers have started searching for properties in the city to set up shop.
Currently, there are over 700 liquor shops in Delhi run by the four government corporations — Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation, Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, Delhi Consumer's Cooperative Whole-sale Store and Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation. The Excise Department has asked the four corporations to carry out document validation online by June 30.
Last week, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said several reforms will be incorporated into the new policy, including scientific testing of liquor quality, digitisation of the sale system, curbing illegal sales, and ensuring transparency in the licensing process. The high-level committee is also studying policies implemented in Delhi earlier and those in neighbouring states.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Print
35 minutes ago
- The Print
Moksha, not motor cars—BR Shenoy's idea of a truly Indian welfare state
Human well-being is inseparably bound up with the immediate and the ultimate purpose of human existence. We cannot escape the question, 'What are we here for?' Are we here to worship on the altar of man's standard of living? Would it be right to say that the purpose of human existence is to live a life of carefree comfort? Much of our thinking today seems to move in that direction. At first sight, this answer might seem to satisfy the question well enough. But it really begs the question. We have said little more than that welfare is equal to well-being of man. We are still far from formulating the issues. If we wish to be scientific and logically consistent, we cannot run away from certain fundamentals of the problem of welfare. The accent of the welfare state is, clearly, on welfare, as there can be no welfare state without welfare. The question at once arises: whose welfare does the welfare state aim at achieving? The answer, probably, would be the welfare of the common man. If it is objected that the common man is very hard to find, we would, probably, amend our answer and say that the objective of the welfare state is the welfare of the masses of people, the maximum well-being of the maximum [number] of people. What is the aim of life? What has [MK] Gandhi to say on the subject? He is always a good and safe guide in these matters. Gandhi had his feet firmly on Indian soil. His thinking went to the roots of our tradition. He has answered the question, 'What is the purpose of human existence,' in the Introduction to The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Says Gandhi: 'What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realisation,… to attain Moksha. I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end' (p. 5). Since it is Gandhi that writes, he means every syllable of what he has recorded. The purpose of all his activities, public and private, political activities not excluded, was the attainment of Moksha. This goal of life conforms to the traditional teachings of this land. Our Institutions and our way of life were attuned to it. The attainment was done scientifically and with rigorous logical consistency. Our daily duties and responsibilities on the mundane plane broadly fall under two categories, the wealth or income-acquiring (Arthic) activities and the want-satisfying (Kamic) activities. Since both activities had to be so regulated as to attain Moksha, their roots had necessarily to be well-grounded in Dharma. For speeding up the inner journey towards Nirvana, it is important that we acquire wealth only in consistence with Dharma and Dharma alone should govern the propensity for the satisfaction of wants. Where does the State fit into this context? It is obvious that the State has no jurisdiction over the inner changes leading to self-realisation, Nirvana. But the remaining three, Dharma, Artha and Kama, the thri-vargas, fall within its purview. The responsibility of the king, who symbolised the State, was to propagate the thri-vargas, subject to the overriding requirement that the Arthic and the Kamic activities were always conditioned by Dharma. It is significant that, under Indian polity, sovereignty lay not in the people, but in Dharma. The concern of the executive wing of the State, the king and his ministers, was to ensure that the rule of the sovereign, Dharma, prevailed. Dharma, like truth, is indivisible and all-pervasive. The State enforced the rule of Dharma in all the activities of the people coming within its ambit, in the administration of justice, in the collection and disbursal of revenues, in the defence of the country, and in every other of its functions and responsibilities. A state where the rule of Dharma prevails is a welfare state, the objective of welfare here being the creation, to the extent permissible on the governmental side, of conditions facilitating the attainment of the goal of life by individuals. How far can such a state go in developing its public sector of economic activity? The essence of a welfare state It follows that under the Indian concept of a (welfare) state, each individual should be left free to pursue his lawfully chosen vocation. Free enterprise, subject only to the rule of Dharma, is an essential feature of the economic setup of the (welfare) state. As the injunction applied to the king and the ministers, it follows, too, that the state, consistently with the rule of Dharma, cannot enter into the sphere of economic activities, which is the sacred domain of the private sector, even if the state was capable (which is a matter of serious doubt) of more efficient production than private firms. The rule of Dharma would restrict government activities to public utilities, basic industries (which the private sector is unable to undertake), basic needs of development, industries of strategic importance from the standpoint of defence, and the like. In particular, a policy of indiscriminate nationalisation of private enterprise was contrary to this doctrine. Minimum state, ideal of India This suggests that the Indian concept of a welfare state was a minimum state. It was wholly antagonistic to a garrison police state. The latter rests on violence and Adharma—under it, the individual is coerced into yielding to the will of the state, which, in practice, means the tyranny of an individual or a group of individuals, who are, for the time being, in possession of the machinery of state. The concept of a welfare state today is linked up with the provision for all citizens of 'minimum' standards of consumption. It provides (or aims at providing) minimum standards of food, shelter, education, health, and income (either by way of minimum wages or public assistance for the destitute). The minima are a floor below which no individual would be allowed to fall. In an economy with an expanding national income, the minimum standards would be progressively lifted up. This concept of a welfare state does not necessarily conflict with the Indian concept. It is the responsibility of an enlightened state to provide relief from abject poverty, which causes starvation or such other suffering. Even in the richer economies, there may be people in need of such relief. But how far shall the state go in lifting up the minimum for all? Will it be the responsibility of the state to provide the more unfortunate families of the nuclear age with motor cars, at least scooters, washing machines, refrigerators, telephones, television and radio sets, and the like? Or would we say that to do so would be going too far. I wish to suggest that this difficult problem may not confront the welfare state of the Indian conception. The limiting condition of the rule of Dharma will prevent the state from acquiring such large revenues as vulgar charity of this character may demand. The need for ensuring minimum standards of consumption is great in under-developed economies, like ours, where the level of consumption of even foodgrains by the masses of people is below nutritional standards. In the Indian context of poverty, the urgency to raise the ratio of goods to man needs no stress. But shall we do this at the sacrifice of the dignity and freedom of the individual? What use is that welfare which ignores the true goal of human life and sets aside the elevating rule of Dharma? A welfare state, which aims solely at Artha and Kama, is devoid of true welfare. Our happiness and welfare would be in proportion to our success in recapturing and translating into our daily life and activities the Dharma-pradhan ideal of life. Consistently with that ideal, our conception of a welfare state would be a minimum state. To quote Gandhi: 'That state is perfect and non-violent where the people are governed the least' (Harijan, p 12, 1940). Sovereignty, according to Indian polity, lay not in the people, but in Dharma. It was the responsibility of the king to enforce the rule of Dharma. A state where the rule of Dharma prevailed was a welfare state, the objective of welfare being to assist man in the attainment of the goal of life. The welfare state of the traditional Indian concept was, thus, a minimum state. It was wholly antagonistic to a garrison police state. It did not conflict with the present-day idea of a welfare state guaranteeing minimum standards of consumption. In the excessive importance we are paying to the successful implementation of the Second [Five-Year] Plan, there was inherent danger to this concept of the welfare state, as insistence on the Plan might lead, step by step, to the adoption of totalitarian devices for raising the requisite resources. To prevent this, we have to be constantly on the vigil. This is part of ThePrint's Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.
Hindustan Times
38 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Drop attempt to murder charge: Himachal leader of Opposition
Jun 22, 2025 08:44 AM IST Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday demanded the state government to immediately drop the attempt to murder charges that has been registered against BJP leaders, including state president Rajeev Bindal, and Paonta Sahib MLA Sukh Ram Chaudhary in a case of stone-pelting that took place few days ago. He also demanded stern action against the main culprit of the incident. Himachal leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur (File) While addressing a press conference, Jai Ram said, 'What happened in Paonta Sahib was clearly a matter of Love Jihad and just like many other such instances involving people of Hindu and Muslim community, action was only initiated against Hindus while no action was taken against the Muslims, which clearly reflects the anti-Sanatan mindset of the government.' 'In a complaint filed by an ASI who was injured in the incident, he had mentioned that it were the people of Muslim community who instigated the violence and pelted the stones first,' Jai Ram said. 'While no action was taken against the accused boy, police arrested four individuals,' he added. 'Being a public representative several BJP leaders were also present during the situation, however, they were not present at the site where violence erupted; still they were booked under Section 109 of BNS,' said Jai Ram. 'The FIR is a result of political vendetta and it looks like the state government saw an opportunity to falsely implicate the top leaders of BJP,' he added.
Hindustan Times
38 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Himachal government deceiving people of state: Tandon
Jun 22, 2025 08:40 AM IST Taking a jibe at the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu led Congress government, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state co-incharge Sanjay Tandon said that it is deceiving people of the state by failing to fulfil poll promises. BJP Himachal co-incharge Sanjay Tandon (File) Tandon, was the keynote speaker at a professional meet organised by BJP on Saturday. He said that during the elections, the Congress party had pledged that every woman of Himachal Pradesh will be given ₹ 1,500 per month but it has not been fulfilled yet, the Congress party believes in deception from resolution. He said, 'Sankalp se Siddhi is not just a phrase but a true resolution which has been fulfilled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.' Addressing the program, BJP state president Rajiv Bindal said, 'Today, PM Modi has responded to terrorism at every level. Operation Sindoor is a living example of this.' BJP state media incharge Karan Nanda said an exhibition was organised by the BJP state on the Ridge ground, which has a complete description of the achievements of the central government in 11 years and this exhibition was inaugurated on Saturday.
