Delhiites thronged liquor stores on Sunday as the national capital stared at a major liquor shortage in the coming days with private wine and beer stores going to shut shop from August 1.
The old liquor sale policy is set to return from Monday and will stay in place for six months. The 468 private liquor shops in the city will be shut from August 1 as the term of their licenses under the excise policy 2021-22 expires on July 31.
News agency PTI reported there was a rush of liquor buyers till late evening at the Star City Mall in Mayur Vihar Extension with vends quickly running out of stock.
“There has been a mad rush since the afternoon hours. We are turning down customers asking for specific brands as most have been sold. Many people, however, buying whatever is available,” said an employee of a shop in the mall.
Know what changes from August 1
Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 extended twice before two months each after April, will come to an end on July 31 as Delhi government has decided to go back to old excise policy and run liquor stores for next six months.
As per the old liquor policy in Delhi, all liquor shops in the city used to be shut for 21 days while only three dry days were observed in the new policy.
It will be the second time within any year as the city is staring at a liquor shortage. For three weeks before new excise came into operation of private run liquor vends from November 17, 2021, there was a shortage of alcohol in Delhi as government-run stores and individual licensees were quitting retail business.
Meanwhile, the private liquor stores across the city on Saturday offered heavy discounts and schemes like one plus one free and one plus two free to sell their remaining stock.
With new policy gone, the excise licences issued to hotels, clubs and restaurants having bars, and wholesale operations will also become redundant apart from private run liquor stores in the city.
It means, there will be virtually no liquor supply from the wholesalers to the entire hospitality sector and retail vends in the city after July 31, till some alternate arrangements are made by the government, liquor trade experts claimed.
Under new excise policy, licences for 849 retail vends were issued through open bidding by Excise department last year. Currently 468 liquor stores are running in the city that will quit business from August 1 rendering thousands of their employees jobless.
An official document from Finance department has directed the Excise Commissioner to coordinate with heads of four corporations of Delhi government for details of liquor vends operated by them before the new Excise Policy (2021-22) came into effect from November 17, 2021.
The four corporations-DSIIDC, DTTDC, DCCWS and DSCSC- were running majority of liquor stores in the city before the Excise Policy 2021-22 came into being with Delhi government quitting retail sale of liquor.
The four government corporations ran 475 liquor stores out of total 864 in Delhi under the old excise policy regime. The private stores, licences held by individuals, numbered 389.
