In the matter of excise policy, the High Court approved the new proposal of the state government
The High Court has approved the new proposal of the state government regarding the excise policy of the state. Under the new proposal, after increasing the revenue by 15 percent, now the licensees will be able to formalize the lottery of vacant shops till April 5. The court finally disposed of the petition challenging the excise policy. The government has got a big relief from the order of the court.
On Friday, in the division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Alok Kumar Verma, Advocate General SN Babulkar and Chief Permanent Advocate Chandrashekhar Rawat, on behalf of the State Government, requested for hearing the matter today itself. Also informed that the allotment of shops has now been extended till April 5. Advertisement will be issued by the Excise Department on Saturday. Earlier, the court had fixed April 13 for the next hearing while directing the government to file its reply in the matter by April 10. Due to which the auction fixed on Friday 31 April could not be held.
Vikas Chandra, a resident of Pirumdara Ramnagar, has filed a petition saying that the government has announced a new excise policy on March 22. Which is to be implemented from 1st April. On March 25, the government issued a release saying that the old license holders should get their shops renewed by March 29, after that the shops which are not renewed, will be auctioned through lottery on March 31.
It was also stated in the petition that Clause 5.3 and 6.3 of the Excise Policy have different policies for country liquor and English liquor. A guarantee duty of Rs 270 per bottle has been fixed for country liquor, while it has not yet been decided for English liquor, on what basis to renew the shops. The government has also given them less time for renewal. Lottery system of shops also reduced the allotment time. Renewal on 29th, holiday on 30th, 31 shops are allotted by lottery. The government did not give them even a day’s time. The government itself has not yet fixed the rate, so this should be banned.
