Chandigarh ( Media Bureau) In a notification issued today, the Administration stated: “The licence fee, which has already been paid by the retail sale licensees for the period from March 23 to 31 when they could not run their retail sale liquor vends due to the lockdown and the curfew imposed by the UT Administration to contain the spread of Covid-19, will be adjusted in the licence fee to be paid for the extended period. The licensees, who have not applied for extension/renewal of their licences and those who do not opt now to get their licences extended/renewed for the extended period, their licence fee for the period from March 23 to 31 will be refunded.”
The Administration has also decided to fix the basic quota of each retail store, but on operational basis.
Extending the liquor and Excise Policy till June 30, the Administration has announced to impose ‘cow cess’ during the extension period. The circular read; “On January 30, the Administration had notified ‘cow cess’ to be levied on liquor and the same will be applicable for the extended period of the Excise Policy for the year 2019-20, which is from May 16 to June 30. The cess will be levied at the rate of Rs 5 per bottle of 750ml of country liquor, Rs 5 per bottle of 650ml of beer and Rs 10 per bottle of 750ml of whisky. It will be deposited by the wholesale licensees in the dedicated bank account of the Municipal Corporation.”
Due to the extension of the period of the Excise Policy 2019-20, from May 15 to June 30, the licensees of wholesale and retail sale liquor licenses (within the radius of 500m from the national/state highway) and retailers who opted for extension/renewal of their licences from April 1 to May 15, are given an option to get their licences further extended/ renewed from May 16 to 30.
