(NDTV)
The Delhi government has extended its excise policy for the financial year 2025-26 even as work is underway to come up with a new regime to regulate liquor trade in the national capital.
An order issued on Thursday by the Excise Department of the Delhi government said approval has been granted by the competent authority for the continuation of the excise duty-based regime which is in effect from the licensing year 2022-23 (which was continued in 2023-24 and 2024-25) for the excise year 2025-26.
The current policy will be extended with effect from July 1 to March 31, 2026, said the order.
Accordingly, wholesale licences will be granted based on the terms and conditions of the existing policy and payment of a proportionate licence fee.
“Further, the terms and conditions of all licenses, which are renewable every year, are also continued for Excise Year 2025-26,” said the order.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta recently instructed the officials to ready a draft proposal of the new excise policy by June 30. The government aims to come up with a new policy that ensures the supply of quality liquor with transparency while generating revenue for it, officials said.
A high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary Dharmendra Kumar is drafting the new policy by going through the policies of other states.
A notice issued by the excise commissioner said the the terms and conditions for the licensing year 2025-26 are the same as that of the licensing year 2022-23. There is no change in price structure, label, source and warehouse among others in case of existing licences/registered brands active upto June 30, said the notice.
The registered brands may be registered for the year 2025-26 on the same terms and conditions as that of licensing year 2024-25 consequent upon the payment of requisite fees and submission of the undertaking, it said.
The extended policy, also known as the old excise policy, came into operation in September 2022 after the then Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government scrapped its reformative policy (2021-22) that ran into rough weather amid allegations of alleged irregularities in its formulation and implementation.
The old policy has since been extended for varying periods as the Delhi government is yet to come up with a new policy.
It was meant to be a stopgap measure to prevent a regulatory vacuum due to the sudden scrapping of the excise policy for 2021-22 by the previous AAP government after Lt Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities in its implementation.
The new policy (2021-22), aimed at reforming the liquor trade in Delhi, was implemented on November 17, 2021, and it came to an end on August 31, 2022. Under the policy, the Delhi government quit retail liquor sales, allowing private parties to run liquor stores across the city under a liberal excise regime.
Under the extended policy, four Delhi government corporations operate retail liquor vends across the city.
