After five years, the Tamil Nadu government has revised the fees payable by hotels and clubs for bar licences.
According to a government order (G.O.) from the Home, Prohibition and Excise Department, the application fee for a new licence has been increased to ₹7,500. Currently, hotels and clubs are paying ₹3,000 as application fee. The licence fee (which hotels pay every year) has also been hiked to ₹25,000 from ₹10,000. A senior government official said that the amendments will come into force from April 1.
Applies to all hotels
Hotels that fall under various categories also pay an annual privilege fee. As per the G.O., five-star hotels which were paying a privilege fee of ₹16 lakh will now have to pay ₹20 lakh. Four-star hotels will be charged ₹12 lakh from the current ₹9 lakh.
Hotels that fall under three and two-star categories will now have to remit a privilege fee of ₹8 lakh and ₹6 lakh respectively. Earlier, they were paying ₹6 lakh and ₹4.5 lakh. Those with a one-star rating were paying a privilege fee of ₹3 lakh, which has now been increased to ₹5 lakh.
A source from the hotel industry said that such hikes happen once every four or five years.
He also said that the liquor market across the State had been doing well and hotels were also churning out huge revenues from this space.
