A SHOT AT RECOVERY

Marking a major departure from its conservative liquor policy, the Rajasthan government, on April 1, issued a notification allowing bars in the state to operate microbreweries.

- Rohit Parihar

The state’s excise department is its second-largest source of tax revenues and, after 15 years of stagnation, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has finally ushered in changes. The move has surprised many since Gehlot, a teetotaller and professed Gandhian, is not known to be sympathetically inclined towards stakeholders in the liquor business.

The apparent change of heart and the new liquor policy are, in fact, driven by the desperate need to shore up state revenues—for possible government interventions during the ongoing pandemic. The loss of revenue has, of course, been exacerbated by the pandemic and its devastating effect on tourism. A new, more liberal liquor policy, it is reasoned, might ease the flow of revenues into the state coffers. To this end, aside from the go-ahead for microbreweries in bars, new excise rules were also announced on February 6.

The state has also allowed an additional 2,100 urban vendors to sell both IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) and country liquor, raising the total number of vendors selling both IMFL and country liquor from 5,600 to 7,700. The new policy also does away with the lottery system for the allotment of liquor shops. In its place, an e-auction system has been introduced. Welcoming the move, Nilesh Mewara, president of the Rajasthan Liquor Welfare Society, says: “This will give genuine bidders better choice and a chance to own two shops in a city and five in the state, as opposed to the earlier lottery system. Many winners used to sell off their shops.”