943 bidders participate, on 34 locations none
* Re-auction of 45 vends shortly, revenue may touch Rs 290 cr
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 17: The Government of of Jammu and Kashmir has generated a highest ever revenue worth over Rs 261 crores with the e-auction of retail liquor vends for the year 2023-24.
Official sources said that as compared to last year’s revenue worth over Rs 217.43 crores, the J&K Excise Department generated a total revenue worth Rs 260.94 crores during this financial year from the e-auction of 257 vends.
Sources further said that 45 locations/vends shall be put to re-auction again within one week and with this, about Rs 285-290 crores revenue is expected, showing about 34% hike.
A senior Excise official told the Excelsior that on April 7, 2023 final result of the bidding was declared with system generated instant mails to successful H-1 bidders and out of 305 vends put to auction , on 34 locations no bidder participated whereas, for remaining 271 vends bids were reported amounting to Rs 260.94 crores.
The official said before introducing bidding system in J&K for such vends, Rs 6.69 crore revenue was generated annually from all the liquor vends in J&K. The average revenue used to remain between Rs 6.5 to 7.0 crores. It increased to Rs 140.40 crores when the auction process started in J&K in 2021-22. During 2022-23, the total revenue generated was to the tune of Rs 217.43 crores in three auctions.
The official further added that a total 943 bidders participated in the bidding process, while 9 H-1 bidders failed to deposit the bid money within stipulated time of 5 bank working days and were declared defaulter and their EMDs amounting to Rs 90 lakhs were forfeited.
Sources disclosed that 44 bidders fall in Rs 15 lakh range, 53 bidders in Rs 15 lakh to 50 lakhs, 66 bidders from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore, 78 bidders from Rs 1 cr to Rs 2 cr, 25 from Rs 2-3 cr category, 2 bidders within Rs 3-4 cr, two from Rs 4-5 crore while only one was in the category of Rs 5-6 crores. While Batwara location in Srinagar has remained at the top in the highest bid category, all the locations above Rs 3 crores fall in Srinagar Municipal Corporation jurisdiction. Within Rs 2-3 cr category locations at Uri, Qazigund, Kupwara, Upper Rehmbal (Udh), Reasi, Manthal, Chenani and a few fall within SMC. Many vends of Udhampur, Jammu North, Kathua and Samba have remained between Rs 1 to 2 crores group.
Excise Commissioner, J&K, Pankaj Sharma when contacted said that 257 new licenses have been issued and directions passed on to all the ETOs to ensure opening of all 257 vends from today (April 17). He said 3 H-1 bidders had to arrange premises for establishing their vends till this afternoon.
“We have generated Rs 260.94 crores from 257 vends this year which is the highest ever revenue in the history of Excise department in J&K earned from liquor vends. We are expecting about Rs 25-30 cr more revenue with the re-auction of 45 vends,” the Commissioner added.
Replying to a question, the Commissioner said in order to fast track opening of vends, this year it was introduced in the Excise Policy that in order to ensure against any loss of revenue to the Government, due to delay in operationalization of vends, no clearance of District Magistrate shall be required for the premises chosen by the H-1 bidder where vends were operational during previous year.
“Entire auction from the date of notice till declaration of H-1 bidders and issuance of license was completed in 19 days. Auction was put to notice for 7 days, bidding four days, declaration of H-1 bidders and payment of bid amount and documents –five bank working days excluding three bank holidays. The EMDs of 368 unsuccessful bidders amounting to Rs 36.80 crores have been released today and rest 11 will be refunded within next two days after verification of stake holders,” the Excise Commissioner added.
He disclosed that on March 28, 2023 the J&K Finance Department notified J&K Excise Policy 2023-24, along with bid document for allotment of 305 JKEL-2 vends (Liquor shops) at various locations across J&K through e-auction. Without wasting any time, on the same day the auction notice was issued giving one week time to all the bidders/participants to get them registered for e-auction. A 2-day training program was organized for prospective bidders and help desk was also established for them.
The bid process commenced on April 4 for 208 locations, followed by 83 and 15 locations. On April 7 final result of bidding for 305 locations was declared. April 15 was last date for depositing the bid amount and required documents (3 bank holidays in between). The earlier existing vends were given extension up to April 16 but some new locations had already been made operational by April 13 to 15. The Commissioner said that all his offices and wholesale traders kept working on Sunday and past five days office worked day and night to ensure this challenging task to get completed in record time.
The Commissioner claimed that Excise Department has been the first to introduce all 60 services through online mode only and also has been accredited as first department in the UT of J&K to implement eGRAS (Electronic Govt Receipt Accounting System) fully on real time basis.
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