Excise policy row: Private shops can sell liquor for 2 more months, says Delhi govt circular

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi has decided to allow private shops to sell liquor for two more months provided they deposit the requisite licence fee days after it said that only government shops will sell liquor from August 1.

In a circular dated July 30, the state government said that licensees who are willing to avail the extension are required to deposit two months' fee in advance by August 4.

Under its new excise policy, the Arvind Kejriwal-led government had decided to conduct auctions and allow private shops to sell liquor. However, the policy became embroiled in a bitter political fight between the state's ruling AAP and the opposition BJP. While the BJP alleged massive corruption in the implementation of the liquor policy, the AAP hit back claiming that the opposition party wanted to encourage illegal and spurious trade.

Amid all this, the Delhi government announced that it would withdraw the policy under which private shops would be shut. However, on Sunday, the state government allowed a further two months' extension to private vends.

The move to roll back the new excise policy also came after Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged violations in the implementation of the policy.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also heads the Excise Department, claimed that his party's government brought in a new excise policy to curb graft but central agencies were used to threaten shopkeepers as well as state officials. Targeting the BJP, he claimed this was done to encourage the sale of illegal as well as spurious liquor.

"We have decided to withdraw the new policy and ordered liquor be sold only through government-run shops. We have done this so that no one can sell illegal or spurious liquor in the capital. I have ordered the state chief secretary to ensure there is no corruption," Sisodia had said at a press conference.

Sisodia claimed that licenses were issued through open tenders in a transparent manner in the new excise policy.

He claimed that before 2021, liquor was sold in Delhi through government shops and alleged there was a lot of corruption. "I also carried out some raids," he said.

"Our government brought a new policy last year. Earlier, there used to be some private shops, but they would be allotted to near and dear ones. We ended this system and brought a new policy. We carried out a transparent auction. We decided that, like earlier, there will be only 850 shops. The government used to earn a revenue of Rs 6000 crore every year, but under the new policy, the revenue would have risen to Rs 9,500 crore," Sisodia claimed.

He said that there were 468 shops functional and many more planned to leave the shops.

"They (BJP) want to create a liquor shortage in Delhi and want to encourage illegal and spurious liquor trade," he alleged.

The excise policy was passed in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Cabinet in the middle of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

The Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is also conducting a probe into the matter. There has also been a face-off between Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and the Delhi government's top brass over the new liquor policy.

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