Excise officials to act tough against MRP violations

Retail outlets to be opened at 18 APBCL depots in 15 districts to stabilise Maximum Retail Price

In less than a week of the new excise policy coming into force, the authorities have focussed on curbing violations of Maximum Retail Price (MRP) by new licensees in a bid to earn higher profits.

Commissioner of Excise Sameer Sharma on Wednesday issued a circular announcing the decision to open retail outlets on the premises of 18 depots of AP Beverages Corporation Limited in 15 districts to stabilise the MRP. They will function under the control of excise supervisory officers at the depots.

Depots

The depots where the shops will come up are: Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam, Kurnool, Prakasam, Tenali, Vijayawada, Gudivada, Rajahmundry, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Eluru, Amalapuram, Mancherial, and Narsaraopet.

The Commissioner earlier directed all the Deputy Commissioners to submit certificates by July 7 to the effect that there were no unauthorised sale points in their jurisdiction. Further, the Excise Department insisted on the shop owners to install electronic billing machines within a month to issue cash receipts to customers.

This move was also aimed at checking MRP violations. The field officers of the department would organise checks of shops by decoys and book cases. The licences of shops would be consequentially suspended.

The billing machines were also supposed to generate daily stock statements of shops for submission to local excise stations at the end of every week.

The strict measures contemplated by government have been a deterrent to the sale of shops in the two rounds of draw of lots. The government on Thursday notified the third round of lots for the 632 unsold shops, including 81 in Hyderabad, on July 12.

A high licence fee of Rs. 1.04 crore in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts has been cited as the reason for the shops not getting sold.