GURGAON LIQUOR CHEAPER THAN DELHI

 DELHI  TO CATCH UP WITH GURGAON IN PRICE PER BOTTLE ?

India holds the dubious distinction of the largest consumer of whisky in the world. Yet it has States that have proclaimed Prohibition and enforce it. The complexities of marketing whisky, or any spirit for that matter, are daunting. They are not helped by the vagaries and vicissitudes of culture-bound States, or so they say. The plethora of executable wine laws in India is applicable not only for importers, producers, distributors, retailers and restaurateurs, all of whom come under the umbrella of licensing, but also the consumer.

Delhi is the 28th most visited city in the world and the first in India, by visitors both foreign and Indian. Tourism is a source of revenue and Excise Revenue is an important source of income for the State. The previous system of excise regime in Delhi was highly cumbersome and the liquor trade is conducted in an archaic manner, with strange laws for distributors and sellers. Just across the border into Haryana, Gurgaon had a thriving liquor industry, with significant income from Excise Duty. The excise revenue generated in Delhi was at sub-optimal level with significant potential for revenue augmentation and also providing a decent standard of customer experience commensurate with the stature of the National Capital.

The known illegal trade across borders was well known to the Excise Dept in Haryana. Excise officials were removed from the border and the massive efflux indirectly promoted. As a direct result, Gurgaon witnessed an explosion in the number of stores selling both Indian and imported liquor under the L-1 classification. L-1 Licences are reserved for bulk sellers. Moreover, buyers had to buy in excess of a certain quota so that the excise revenue could be maximised. Currently, over 60 stores are operating as L-1 merchants. You cannot drive more than one km in Gurgaon in any direction without coming across a bright and glaringly prominent L-1 store.

In October 2021, Delhi announced its new policy for liquor traders. Traders who met stipulated quota in the past in any one of the past two years were sold L-1 licences. A new order in the 2021 policy stipulated that the stores be of national class, if not international. Also, no Maximum Reserve Price was to be quoted on the label, leaving the trader to decide his margins. Once this order was realised, traders in Delhi, who had huge reserves piled up due the pandemic, decided to offer unheard of bonuses, attracting mile-long queues and snaky tailbacks for Kms. The Delhi Govt banned any such discount and imposed a minimum sale price per brand of alcoholic beverages. The watching traders in Gurgaon raised prices overnight, but kept them below Delhi rates.