JAMMU, FEBRUARY 22: Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Atal Dulloo, reiterated that the new excise policy would ensure that only single vend is secured by a bidder whose eligibility has been capped to the domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir only.
It has also been added that the bidder should have immovable property equivalent to 100 per cent of the bid amount in the UT and he should not be defaulter of taxes department under different acts governing J&K. he added while announcing new Excise Policy 2022-23 here at Excise Taxation Complex,
To ensure that no evasion of rules occurs and the vends go under auction in a transparent manner, he said that the e-auction portal would be governed by J&K bank as a 3rd party nodal agency. The policy has added features of encouraging local production by exempting export duty on all kinds of liquor for the policy year 2022-23, he said, adding that it would also fulfill the need of providing quality drink to consumers in unserved/underserved areas as some new vends have been proposed in the policy.
The department has made certain amendments in the previous policy by increasing Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh and Minimum Guaranteed Revenue (MGR) by 10 per cent. Moreover, the bidder should be having good character without being convicted for any non-bailable offense.
The policy has also framed timelines under which different activities of bidding would be carried out and a bidder has to deposit the bid amount in a period of 10 working days. The successful bidder would also be given the license after receiving clearance from the concerned District Magistrate in a period of 15 days only.
Pointing out that the policy would bring greater social consciousness and awareness about harmful effects of liquor consumption and drug abuse, he said that it would also put an effective check on the menace of bootlegging and smuggling of all narcotic drugs in J&K from neighboring states and UTs.
It was informed that besides making quality liquor available to consumers this policy would encourage transition from high to low alcoholic content beverages to safeguard the health of consumers.