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Prohibitive licence fees de-spirit liquor shops Saturday, October 27, 2001

AHMEDABAD: At any given point of time, the number of health permit holders who enjoy the official ``sanction'' to drink in Gandhiland barely goes beyond 22,000, half of whom are ex-servicemen, but the number of regular drinkers could very well be a hundred times more.

It is not just the influence of Gandhism or Gujarat's unique disposition on the issue of prohibition that is de-spiriting the expansion of licensed shops selling liquor, but also the prohibitive licence fees and security deposits.

Official sources say that a five-star hotel owner would have to pay at least Rs 3 lakh every year to the prohibition department to get a licence for a liquor shop. This is one of the many reasons why few want to go through the trouble of owning a wine shop in dry Gujarat.

Recently, the prohibition department cancelled the licence for a famous resort in Palanpur. The reason: They failed to pay up their security dues. Not that the popularity rating of the resort declined because of that.

Says Jahangir Cama of Cama Park Plaza hotel which has had a liquor shop for the last 41 years: ``The liquor shop in my hotel is not earning me any extra business. In fact, visitors have to waste time getting a permit to drink.''

The same is the case with Hotel Inder Residency which is among the 22 places in the state having an authorised liquor shop. Liaison officer of the hotel, Laxman Hariramani, points out: ``A customer gets a bottle of Royal Stag at Rs 420 in our hotel and from the bootlegger he gets it for Rs 250, so one can guess a drinker's preference.''

Further, it is easier to get a permit for someone holding a foreign passport, ``but if someone comes from a state other than Gujarat, he would have to fill in a form costing Rs 150 and pay Rs 500 as permit charges to the prohibition department for enjoying a bottle of liquor here, the minimum price of which at an authorised shop is Rs 320'', Hariramani adds.

Besides, the hotel pays Rs 53,000 every three months towards salaries and establishment charges of the sub-inspector and constable posted at these shops to ensure that things are going about the legal way.

Sources say that visitors to a water park in the state are often caught unawares by the fact that the place has an authorised liquor shop but people can only drink within the four walls.

The irony of the policy is that the annual revenue of these shops borders Rs 20 crore from sales while the state earns Rs 40 crore as excise duty but loses out on a revenue of nearly Rs 600 crore on account of prohibition, says a highly placed official. Former tourism minister Suresh Mehta did talk of relaxing some of the licensing norms for foreign tourists but nothing much happened.

News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]

 

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