Chandigarh: Only five turn up for auction of remaining liquor vends now

On Monday, after the day-long auction, only five out of 41 vends could find takers, that too despite the fact that the department had slashed the reserve price from three to five per cent. Five vends that were auctioned were that of Sector 24, Sector 40-C, Maloya, Manimajra and Sector 34.

On March 15, only 43 out of 95 liquor vends went under the hammer which had happened for the first time in Chandigarh. Experts had attributed the poor response to the ‘attractive’ excise policy of Punjab. The highest price was fetched by the liquor vend of Palsora that went to Kler Wines for Rs 11.65 crore against the reserve price of Rs 9.60 crore. The second highly priced liquor vend this time was that of Sector 61 market which borders Punjab area. This liquor vend went to Monarch Wines and fetched Rs 9.55 crore against the reserve price of Rs 9.52 crore.
On March 21, only 11 out of 52 vends could get takers. Even the most highly priced liquor vend of Khuda Jassu went only for Rs 5,000 more than the reserve price. The reserve price of this liquor vend was Rs 7,56,85,329 and it fetched Rs 7,56,90,000. The vend was taken by one Rakesh Kumar from Smayra International. The second highest liquor vend was taken by one Lalit Thakur in Sector 37D which was for Rs 7,37,00,019 against the reserve price of Rs 6,20,86,481.

The department had failed to auction nearly 55 per cent of its liquor vends in the first auction. A total of only 62 bids against 43 liquor vends having a reserve price of Rs 202.35 crore was received and the department was able to collect a total revenue of only Rs 221.59 crore.