Bengaluru, Sep 17: The Karnataka excise department has postponed the auction of defunct liquor licences after protests from traders. The auction, which was expected to happen soon, may now take place only in late October.
Excise minister R.B. Timmapur decided to delay the move following objections from industry representatives. The government will first amend excise rules before putting the licences up for auction. Traders recently met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and requested him to stop the process.
The Federation of Wine Merchants’ Associations of Karnataka argued that most of the licences listed for auction were already taken over by the state-owned MSIL back in 2009.
Excise officials, however, said the rule changes would be notified soon, after which stakeholders could raise objections. MSIL itself declined to comment on the issue.
According to the Karnataka Wine Merchants’ Association, the situation is complicated because several licence holders have filed court cases that are still pending. General secretary Honnagiri Gowda said, “We have been urging the government not to go ahead with the auction, as existing vendors are already suffering losses.”
Currently, Karnataka has around 13,000 liquor licences in different categories. But no fresh licences have been issued since 1992, forcing businesses to buy, renew, or lease old licences at very high costs.
An excise official explained, “The department often receives requests for new licences, but it is ultimately the government’s call.”
Federation general secretary B. Govindraj Hegde insisted there are no valid licences available for auction. He pointed out that the licences given to MSIL were through a special rule for government-run shops, not from the quota system. He also added that quotas are linked to population, but no new census data has been released since 2011, making revisions impossible.
