UP Clears New Excise Policy; Could Benefit NCR Residents

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet has approved its excise policy for the fiscal 2025-26, with the document proposing several key changes, including "composite liquor shops"—which will merge beer and foreign liquor outlets into a single unit (the two were hitherto sold separately)—as well as boost tourism via the introduction of vineyards and microbreweries in the state.

- Qazi Faraz Ahmad

LUCKNOW:

The approval was made in a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday night.

The new UP excise policy will likely benefit the residents of Delhi—liquor stores in the Capital have faced a crisis of options and stock for more than two years, after the city's 2021-22 excise policy was rolled back in August 2022.

So far, customers in Delhi were forced to buy from neighboring Gurugram, where liquor is significantly cheaper and the options more varied. The new UP excise policy, which may introduce greater varieties to the state, may give the Capital's residents an alternative to Gurugram, which can be quite a drive from east and north Delhi that border Ghaziabad and Noida.

Announcing the new features of the excise policy at a press briefing in Lucknow, UP excise commissioner Dr. Adarsh Singh said the state will now have three types of liquor vends—model shops, country liquor shops, and composite shops.

"One will get foreign liquor, wine, and beer at composite shops. There will not be separate licenses for beer shops, as now beer will be sold either from composite shops or at country-made liquor shops only," Singh said.