Maharashtra Permits Easier Drinking Norms, Longer Hours

Achal Dhruva - Mumbai

Hoteliers, wine shop owners and tipplers in Maharashtra have yet another reason to raise a toast. The state government has decided to issue spot temporary permits for consumption of liquor and extend the timing of wine shops upto 22:00 hrs. The state excise department will soon issue a circular to the effect.

According to Anil Deshmukh, minister for state excise, food and drug administration, the decision to issue temporary permits on the spot at a nominal fee will ensure that neither consumers nor the bar owners are hassled unnecessarily by various monitoring agencies. Besides, he said the temporary permits which will be valid for a day and available to the consumer for a nominal price of Rs four or five, would also add to the state excise coffers. Deshmukh informed that the bar owners would be empowered to issue these permits.

The circular allowing wine shops to conduct business till 22:00 hrs, an extension from the current deadline of 20:30 hrs will also be issued shortly. The 22:00 hrs deadline had been a long pending demand of wine retailers, as they felt was more realistic than the existing one, which anyway was flouted by many with the aid of connections and money.

These decisions follow in the wake of the reduction of liquor license fee by 50 per cent, from Rs five lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh by the state excise department just a few months ago. However, the liquor trade was rife with rumours that the reprieve was going to be short-lived and as plans were afoot to increase the license fee after a period of time. Dismissing the rumours Deshmukh said, “We have no plans to implement any hike, at least within the year.”