Gandhinagar: Revenue from liquor rose threefold

Ahmedabad: There are 20 hotels with permit liquor shops in the city and state capital Gandhinagar.The state government, in reply to a question by Jamalpur-Khadia MLA Imran Khedawala, stated that in the last two year not a single liquor shop licence has been cancelled. Replying to the question about revenue from these liquor shops, the government said that the income of taxes from these permitted liquor shops in hotels was Rs 10.86 crore between June 1, 2018 and May 31,2019, or about Rs 8.26 crore higher than the previous year.According to liquor shop owners, the higher tax collection is due to the special assessment fees and increased excise duty on liquor in Gujarat.“Sales have gone down by 40% at liquor shops, because permit renewals were stalled for almost 10 months.

Moreover, the rate of rejection of health permit application is now higher and fewer permits are being renewed. This is affecting our sales. The increase in taxes is primarily due to the increase in the special fees and excise duty on liquor,” said the owner of a permit shop at an Ahmedabad hotel, on condition of anonymity. tnn