Liquor ban on highways: States mull options to protect revenue

Faced with huge revenue losses following the Supreme Court order of banning liquor outlets/bars on highways, various state governments are looking at options to protect their finances.

While some States such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Union Territory of Chandigarh are proposing to denotify state highways by changing their nomenclature to district highways or urban roads, others seem to be looking at seeking legal opinion or time to enforce the apex court order.

However, senior executives in the hotel and restaurant industry say changing the nomenclature may work only for the short term, which could attract further litigation.

At the Centre, officials pointed out that denotifying portions of National Highways though not impossible, is not an easy task and the Centre will have to take a call on the issue.

“National Highways are a network, and it would be difficult to denotify stretches of the network. This impacts continuity of a highway stretch, and there cannot be a national highway, with stretches of badly managed roads,” said multiple officials.

Moreover, the National Highway stretches, in their present form, are also given out on concessions to developers, who have agreements with NHAI to manage them spread over several years.

On Monday, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, tweeted, “ Travel & tourism have vast potential to emerge as key employment creator for India. Require predictability,consistency & clarity of policies.”

Garish Oberoi, Vice-President, The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, said, “We are in a wait and watch mode while engaging with various state governments and the Central Government. We have urged the authorities to look at the middle path so that the enforcement of the order does not impact the business of the hotel and restaurant industry.”

In its representation to the Centre, the association has urged the government to exempt hotels and restaurants located within city limits from the order and demarcate a certain area within the hotels where they can be allowed to serve liquor.

Rahul Singh, Secretary, National Restaurant Association of India, said that eight travel, hotel and restaurant industry bodies have come together to form a taskforce to engage with various State governments.

“We met with the Haryana Chief Secretary to apprise him about the revenues and job losses this will lead to in the hotel and restaurant industry and to seek his intervention to resolve this issue,” he said.