The Telangana Government earned a licence fee of Rs. 934 crore from the sale by lottery of 2,023 out of 2,216 notified liquor shops on Monday.
Of the 193 shops that could not be sold, there were no applicants for 172 outlets while the remaining 21 were not disposed of as the successful bidders got more than one shop in the draw of lots and some of them did not turn up despite making earnest money deposit of Rs. 5 lakh and paying an application money of Rs. 25,000. The rules permitted only one shop per head. Interestingly, all the rejected applications for the 21 shops were in the highest slab with a licence fee of Rs. 90 lakh in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits. They included 14 in Hyderabad revenue district, five in Ranga Reddy and two in Medak.
Excise authorities said all the applicants participated in the lottery for shops in the districts, except Khammam and Adilabad where three shops did not receive response.
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The licence fee of Rs. 934 crore that was received pertained to one year and one third of the money was to be paid by owners immediately and bank guarantees furnished for the remaining amount.