The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has increased the licence fee on country-made liquor by 10 per cent, beer by 15 per cent, and foreign liquor by 20 per cent. It declared the hike during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, giving its nod to the State’s 2020-21 excise policy.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Principal Secretary, Excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, said: “The government has made a simple and transparent excise policy. The renewal of licences will be done through e-lottery. Under the new policy, one person will be allowed to have only two (liquor) shops in the State.”

He further said beer shops can now sell wines, too.

Licence fees

A licence fee will be charged to serve liquor in luxury trains and cruises within the State boundary, which was free earlier. Under the new norms, licences will be given to airport lounges and hotels located outside airports, where flight passengers stay.

“The licence fee to serve liquor in hotels located in small towns will be ₹2.5 lakh per year — a first-of-its-kind facility,” Bhoosreddy added.

The annual licence fee to serve liquor in a 50-room hotel has been fixed at ₹10 lakh for category-1 cities (hotels/restaurants and clubs in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad district, municipal corporation area of Kanpur Nagar, Agra, Prayagraj, Lucknow and Varanasi).

The licence fee for category-2 cities has been fixed at ₹7.5 lakh. This includes the municipal corporation areas of Gorakhpur, Mathura, Ayodhya, Aligarh, Bareilly, Firozabad, Meerut, Jhansi, Moradabad and Saharanpur.

The licence fee for category-3 cities is ₹5 lakh, while for category-4 cities, it is ₹2.5 lakh, Bhoosreddy said.

Bar codes on liquor bottles

The UP government has also announced that bar codes will be placed on all liquor bottles so that consumers can check the authenticity of the contents.

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