The Excise department is planning to reintroduce the same policy that existed before 2019 in Andhra Pradesh.
According to it, the retail liquor liquor business would be handed over to private parties.
A draft policy with minor changes to that being implemented in Telangana has been readied. The department is planning to accept numerous applications from an applicant and allocate licences on a lottery basis.
Each application would be sold at Rs 2 lakh which is non-refundable amount.
The Excise department examined the studies done in Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and also took into consideration the reports submitted by a consultancy to look into it.
The Excise department has decided that the Telangana model would suit for Andhra Pradesh too and readied proposals basing on the same.
The price of liquor would also be equal to that in Telangana and Karnataka. The Excise officials are of the opinion that it would help in checking the sale of non-duty paid liquor (NDPL).
The Andhra Pradesh state government constituted a sub-committee to formulate the Excise policy with minister Kollu Ravindra, Nadendla Manohar, Kondapalli Srinivas, Satyakumar Yadav, Gottipati Ravikumar as the members.
The committee would review the reports of studies held in other states and initial proposals of the Excise department.
It would also discuss business, prices and taxes to be imposed on liquor. At the same time, the opinions of different sections in the society and stakeholders would also be considered. The Excise policy would be finalised in the next one week after thoroughly studying the proposals.
The NDA government cancelled the SEB formed by the previous government. Once the orders are released, 70 per cent of the SEB staff would move into their home departments. From September 5, transfers would be taken up in the Excise department. Then the liquor policy would be finalized and applications would be accepted and allocation of licences would be allocated before September-end.
By October 1, officials are planning to implement the new liquor policy.
