Aiming to recover the revenue it has been losing to the neighbouring states, the Delhi government is mulling over bringing the liquor prices, especially in the premium segment, at par with cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) — such as Faridabad and Gurgaon — under the upcoming liquor policy, said sources. Sources said the matter was discussed on Friday during a meeting held by the excise committee formed to draw up a “transparent and socially secure” policy. The ministerial committee is headed by PWD minister Parvesh Sahib Singh and other ministers are its members. The draft of the new liquor policy, sources said, will be ready in the next one month. “Several rounds of internal meetings at the level of officials have been held. The committee has held around four meetings so far to discuss the policy. In the meeting held on Friday, discussion on various matters like the fixed retail margin, excise duty, legal age for consuming beer in Delhi and availability of premium brands,” said an official. A senior official explained, “Even as there is no huge price gap as far as the Indian brands are concerned, people from Delhi mostly go to neighbouring cities, especially Gurgaon, to buy premium liquor as there is a fixed retail margin in the Capital on 'a per bottle basis'. On the other hand, in Gurgaon, there is no fixed retail margin.” The official added, “The liquor policy in Gurgaon is also different from the one in Delhi. The trader has the flexibility to decide the prices and discounts because they pay a huge amount during the auction of the licence — a minimum reserve price of around Rs 20 crore which also goes above during the auctioning. So, they have to recover the cost by giving discounts and offers.” The retail margin cap is fixed at Rs 50 on Indian Made Foreign Liquor and Rs 100 on foreign liquor per bottle in the Capital. “Due to this fixed margin, the government corporations don't keep premium imported liquors priced above Rs 1,000 in Delhi because of which the customers go to neighbouring cities, especially Gurgaon and Faridabad, to buy premium brands,” said another official. For instance, if Black Label sells for Rs 3,500 in Delhi, it might be selling for Rs 2,400 in Gurgaon, said the official. Another problem that buyers in the Capital have been facing for the last three years is the non-availability of premium brands. “This is also one of the reasons which is pushing our customers to the neighbouring city. After the last liquor policy was scrapped, only government run shops are allowed to sell liquor in Delhi… In the absence of private shops, the government-run shops have also monopolised the retail business by pushing less popular brands at the range of Rs 400 to Rs 600, instead of stocking premium brands,” said an official. “Thus, if we rationalise these margins and sell popular premium brands in all the shops in Delhi, the price will be similar and people will not go to Gurgaon or Noida .This will also boost revenue in Delhi,” the official added. Sources said that there are plans to restart the private liquor shops in Capital along with government shops as it was before November 2021. “Currently, premium brands are not available at liquor vends under the existing policy, which has resulted in revenue losses for the government. To address this, the government is now considering making premium brands available at every outlet,” said a source. There were also discussions on lowering the legal drinking age for beer from 25 to 21 but all the panel members did not agree on the proposal. “So, the legal age for drinking is likely to remain the same,” said sources. Currently, there are over 700 liquor shops in the city run by four government corporations.
