Excise Policy May Be Notified On Monday.

The excise policy for 2011 is likely to be notified on Monday. The new measures include a hike in liquor prices, an opportunity to expand the range of fine wine in the market and an increase in the license fee slabs for restaurants and five star hotels serving liquor.

Your favourite brand of liquor will get costlier by 10 to 15 percent from next month. The new excise policy, which has been delayed by two months, has been approved by the office of the Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna for notification. With the weekend coming in the way, the state government is planning to notify the policy for 2011 on Monday.

It is expected to come into effect from mid June.

Earlier it was to be notified from June 1. The delay in notification had triggered speculation that the policy may not be effective before July 1. However, the excise department is planning to introduce the measures from June 15. The revised policy is introduced at the beginning of every financial year.

The policy for 2011, prepared in keeping with the Delhi Excise Act 2009, will introduce not just a revised price structure for Indian manufactured foreign liquor, imported liquor, country liquor and wine but also spell out a revised license fee structure for five star hotels and stand alone restaurants. The department is targeting an overall collection of Rs 2,300 crore from excise duty in 2011-12. In the last fiscal it collected Rs 2,024 crore as against a target of Rs 2,000 crore.

A bottle of any popular IMFL brand costs between Rs 200 to Rs 350. The increase in price is expected to be in the range of 10 to 15 percent of the existing Maximum Retail Price. The price of the cheapest whisky in the IMFL category is going to rise by Rs 10 per bottle on an average. A 750 ml bottle of country liquor which costs Rs 60 is expected to cost Rs 70. Consumers should be prepared for an increase of about 10% in the imported liquor category too.

The price of wine is expected to go up marginally and the brand fee for this category is being slashed significantly. However, the brand fee for imported liquor and Indian manufactured foreign liquor is being increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com