Punjab government approves excise policy for first three months of FY 2022-23

The policy has been allowed renewal for a period of three months to those existing licensees who will give 1.75% excess revenue over minimum guaranteed revenue (MGR) of financial year 2021-22 for their respective groups and zones in order to maintain stability in the liquor trade, a spokesperson from the chief minister’s office said.

An elaborate excise policy will be announced in June to be effective from July 1. It will reflect the policy of the recently-elected AAP government.

The MGR of groups and zones would be Rs. 1,440.96 crores for a period of three months. However, the revenue target of this short term Excise Policy is kept at Rs. 1910 crores for three-month period.

A major source of revenue for the state, the excise policy announced last year in February pegged the revenues for the current financial year to Rs. 7,002 crores, with an increase of 20% from the last year’s target of Rs. 5,794 crores. The state excise officials revealed that they have surpassed the targets.

In order to generate more revenue, the minimum guaranteed quota (MGQ) of Punjab made liquor (PML) called desi, Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL), beer and imported foreign liquor (IFL) of each group and zone has been increased by 10% over the minimum guaranteed quota of corresponding first quarter of last financial year of the respective group and zone.

Further, to allow retail licensees to lift liquor as per their requirement, the amount of additional fixed license fee has been increased, the official said.

The ratio of fixed and open quota of PML shall be 30:70 as was prevalent during financial year 2021-22. In order to control the production and movement of liquor, IT based track and trace system would be implemented during the financial year 2022-23, the official said.