Liquor prices to increase in UP from April 1; Check details here

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has approved a new excise policy for the fiscal year 2023-24, with the goal of raising Rs 45,000 crore in revenue from the liquor business, which will go into effect on April 1, 2023. On Saturday, the procedure was approved at a state cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The liquor lobby advocated for extending the current 10 am-10 pm sale hours to 11 pm. Though the timings under the new policy would remain the same, it allows for the sale time to be extended "on special occasions" with prior permission. The "special occasions" for which liquor sale hours could be extended have yet to be determined.

To increase revenue, the government raised the fee for running the canteen facility at model shops from 2 lakhs to 3 lakhs, along with a 10% increase in the minimum guarantee quota (MGQ) of country-made liquor. In layman's terms, MGQ is the amount of stock that a country liquor seller is required to purchase from the government.


The MGQ for a country liquor seller in 2022-23 was 58.32 crore bulk litres. Following the most recent 10% increase in April (2023-24), country liquor sellers would need to purchase 64.15 crore bulk litres of 36% alcohol-by-volume (ABV) intensity.

"While encouraging responsible drinking, the liquor sale hours should have been extended until 11 p.m. This would have been extremely beneficial to liquor retailers "Devesh Jaiswal of the Uttar Pradesh Liquor Sellers' Welfare Association confirmed this.

Bonded warehouse licences (BWFL-2A, 2B, 2C) for foreign liquor, beer, and wine have had their licence fees and security increased. The master warehouse registration and renewal fees have also been raised.

The fee for hotel/restaurant and Club Bar licences has been raised by creating a special category for the authority area of Gautam Budh Nagar, the municipal corporation areas of Lucknow and Ghaziabad, and areas within 5 kilometres of these areas, whether urban or rural. The licence fee for other types of bar licences remains unchanged.

FAQs:

1. Which state has the cheapest liquor in India?
   Goa.
2. Which state has no alcohol in India?
   Gujarat has had prohibitions in place since it became a state in 1960.