Introduced recently by the state government, the amended excise policy incorporates multiple modifications for the alcohol business and retail in Rajasthan. Benefitted by altered provisions, a wine shop in the Hanumangarh district of the state has surprisingly managed to secure a bid of ₹510 crores, starting from a base price of ₹72 lakh. Auctioned through the revamped online process, the shop registered this enormous amount after a day of repeated bids.
Wine shops being auctioned at 30% higher amounts than base prices!
In accordance with the revised excise policy, an online auctioning system has replaced the lottery system. Records indicate that over 7,000 retail centres have participated in e-auctioning till now. Following the new guidelines, the bidding at the Hanumangarh shop was initiated at 11 AM and ended post-midnight. After the bidding process continued for more than 12 hours, the highest price quoted stood at a staggering ₹510 crores.
Abolished by the previous government, the bidding system was revived under the current regime. As per the officials, the virtual bidding process is observing bidding amounts that are 30% higher than the base price, on average. Informing about the e-auction of the wine shops, excise officials asserted that the facility commenced last week. In the latest string of developments, Kiran Kanwar from Nohar, got the wine shop in a Rs 510 crore bid which is around 708 times more than the initially stated price.
Multiple shops profited by earnings in crores!
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An official was quoted saying, “As per the rule, a demand notice needs to be sent to the bidder who has to deposit two per cent of the bidding amount in the next three days or else his allotment gets cancelled. If the bidder fails to deposit the money, then the security deposit of over Rs 1 lakh shall be forfeited.”
In addition to Nohar, two wine shops in the Churu district and Jaipur’s Sanganer have been auctioned at prices of ₹11 crores and ₹8.91 crores, respectively. The authorities also acquainted that umpteen shops in Sujangarh, Churu and Hanumangarh have profited with earning in crores, exceeding their base prices of ₹1-2 crore by huge margins. In view of this, some wine traders have asserted that the competition has expanded in recent days.
Beer to get cheaper in Rajasthan April 1 onwards
Besides the latest online auction system, the new excise policy also brought good news for liquor consumers in the state. With the implementation of the new rules, beer prices will be lowered by ₹30-35 from April 1. This reduction has been propelled by cuts in additional excise duty and MRP on beer. While Indian-made foreign liquor(IMFL) and beer shall not have any special vend fees, COVID surcharge has also been removed on all excise items, except IMFL and bottled-in-origin (BIO) or imported liquor.
