New Excise policy Srinagar attracts highest bid at Rs 3.46 cr for liquor shop license

TNN Bureau. Updated: 4/20/2021 10:41:07 AM Front Page

Prominent existing wine traders retains licenses in new bidding process

Jammu: In the first online bidding process for liquor licenses in Jammu and Kashmir under new excise policy 2020, a wine shop at cantonment board in district Srinagar attracted the highest bid of Rs 3.46 crores while Kathua bagged the second and third highest bids at 3.15 crores and 2.25 crores.
Moreover, the some prominent wine traders has successfully managed to retain the licenses for liquor shops in the three day long online bidding process.
An official source told The News Now, in online bidding for liquor license district srinagar scored the biggest bids made across Jammu and Kashmir wine shops in district Kathua attracted second and third highest bids of 3.15 crores and 2.25 crores respectively.
“Jammu attracted the 4th biggest bid at 1.8 crores. In the outskirts of Jammu, the bid for license went upto 1.63 cr at Domana and 31 lakhs at Nagrota. Naiwala in Akhnoor also secured a bid at 72 lakhs,” an official said adding that the details were also shared by Excise Commissioner, Rahul Sharma, on social media.
As per the list of new liquor shop licenses holders assessed by this scribe under new excise policy, the few existing prominent wine traders like the Dalujas and Bansi Lal and many others have managed to retain their licenses and even procure new licenses in some cases.
It is apposite here to mention that the government had marketed the new excise policy a remedy for the monopoly held by few businessmen in trade, which the wine traders opposed to the bill had decried to be misleading.
The protesting wine traders had argued that the policy instead of weeding out monopoly would in fact facilitate increase it.
In Samba district, Bari Brahma bagged the highest bid for 1.22 cr with Nandpur following it at 1.02 crores. At Ramgarh, a wine shop scored 1.05 crores in bidding with another attracting 25 lakhs.
In Rajouri district’s Sunderbani the bid went up to 1.4 cr and in its neighbouring Bhambla in Reasi district the bid was recorded at 82 lakhs for Rosie Wine Shop. Pouni, also in Reasi district, attracted a bid for 37.2 lakhs.
The biggest bid in Doda district was made in Bhadarwah for 1.39 cr and was followed by another bid at 39 lakhs.
In Poonch, Ramesh Wine Shop went for Rs 1.23 crore and Romesh Wine Shop bid for Rs 96 lakh.
It’s pertinent here to mention that the Jammu and Kashmir Excise Department started this online auction for 228 liquor shops under new Excise Policy 2021-22 amidst a strong opposition from the local wine traders.
People took part in this online auction on Thursday at 9 am from the link given on the department’s website. For this, registration had started five days ago and people who had registered to participate in the auction got a link, which made them participate in this auction process.
This auction, the department maintains, is completely transparent and to address the problems being faced by people participating in the auction, helpline numbers have also been issued by the committee headed by the Commissioner of Excise Department.
Schedule for the auction of these 228 shops was announced a few days ago by the Excise department. The links for locations going into auction are slated to be open for 72 hours from the time it goes into auction.
The department has issued the locations for auction at the ward level. The locations have been further classified into sections A, B and C in the wards with more than one location.
The department had, on Wednesday, on its website, posted complete information regarding the locations, registration of fees and other formalities to participate in the auction.
Each location has been given a different ID for the convenience of the applicants so that locations are clear in every way and they not auction for any wrong location.
This entire process will be online and fees will also be deposited online and after the completion of the process, the department will release the list of successful people.



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