Hyderabad: With unveiling new excise policy by the AP State Government , liquor will now freely available in malls, hyper markets from July 1 across the State.

Liquor will be available in malls and hyper markets with over 10,000 sq.ft. under this policy. The Special Chief Secretary Ajeya Kallam said that there would be exclusive stalls for selling liquor in the malls and hypermarkets. Defending the action, he said that his phenomenon was in vogue in several major cities in the country. It is intended to curb loose sales and the sale of non-duty paid liquor. The government has decided to set up outlets in all mandals in the State and would be located in busy areas. The main idea of this is that if any shop violates MRP norms, customers will automatically turn to government outlets.

The government has decided to run 10 per cent of the existing 4,380 liquor outlets in the State. The license fee slabs has been revised from the existing 5 to 7 with a maximum of Rs.60 lakh per year in case of corporations and cities with population in excess of five lakhs. Permit room would however continue.

Fee structure:

The Fee would be Rs.30 lakhs a year for shops in places with less than 5,000 population and in areas with population up to 10,000, the fee would be Rs.34 lakhs a year and the same for town with population up to 25,000 has been fixed at Rs.37 lakh and Rs.40 lakhs for places with population up to 50,000. In towns with population between 50,000 and 3 lakh will have to pay Rs.40 lakh and those in towns with population up to 5 lakh should pay Rs.50 lakh. In respect of corporations with over 5 lakh population, the fee is fixed at Rs.60 lakh. Application fee for rural areas had been fixed at Rs.30,000, municipalities – Rs.40,0000 and Corporations – Rs.50,000.

Minister for Excise Kollu Ravindra said that the applicants should provide details of their PAN cards or VAT returns along with the application. Under this new policy, the government expects 20 per cent more revenue to the tune of Rs.11,900 crore.