The Excise Department has focussed its attention on renewal and grant of new licences to restaurants and bars after completing the allotment of liquor shops to interested applicants in a hassle-free manner.
Unlike the liquor shops which were not affected by and large by the recent Supreme Court order imposing restrictions on the location of liquor vends adjacent to national and State highways, officials of the Excise Department estimate that 23 bars need to be relocated due to the orders. There are close to 1,000 bars spread across Telangana of which, these bars fall under the limit of being located less than 220 metres from the highways.
“Relocation of the shops lying within the limits set by the apex court is easier. But relocation of bars will need a bigger exercise as these establishments require proper infrastructure like seating arrangements, air conditioning and refrigeration facilities, food and proper parking arrangements,” a senior official said.
The department had accordingly decided to renew licences of owners who are willing to relocate their establishments outside the limits prescribed in the Supreme Court’s orders.
The department, according to senior officials, is still awaiting approval of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for its proposal to increase liquor prices. The proposal to hike prices comes from the mounting pressure from the manufacturers who complained of increasing manufacturing costs and there was no revision of prices for more than two years now.
A file circulated by the department sparing lower variants from price hike and proposing around 5% hike in medium range brands and little over 10% hike in the premium brands has not been cleared by the Chief Minister. The department is sceptical on whether the Chief Minister would give his nod to hiking prices as a similar proposal sent by it during the previous excise year had been rejected.
The department was prepared to hike the prices by Diwali, coming a couple of weeks after the closure of the current excise year on September 30, if the Government gave its nod for increasing the prices, officials said.
