Liquor On The Highway: Telangana To Introduce New Excise Policy

Hyderabad: The Telangana government will soon come up with a new excise policy aiming to regulate the trade, in view of the Supreme Court order which banned liquor outlets near highways, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"Our excise year comes to an end on September 30. The new policy is valid from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2019. The whole idea is that by September 11 we will close the entire process of finalising and allocation of outlets," principal secretary, revenue, Somesh Kumar said. "It has become complicated because of the fact that many shops along the highways need to be relocated (as per the Supreme Court order). With the new geographical changes, we are discussing with stakeholders on concluding certain issues," he said.

On an average, Telangana annually gets about Rs 14,000 crore by way of excise and VAT from liquor sales. The state has 3,200 outlets, including bars and restaurants selling liquor. Kumar said the idea behind the new policy is not to get more revenue, but to regulate it (liquor trade).

To a query, he said the department has received a proposal for selling beverages with lesser alcoholic content in specified outlets. However, he ruled out implementing such a system.