No taker for leftover liquor vends in Chandigarh

Chandigarh's excise and taxation department's latest round of auction for the remaining 18 liquor vends for the current fiscal year, which was held on 27th October, failed to attract any bidder.

As per a newspaper report, the department is likely to initiate another round of auction, which would start from today and bids for which would be opened on 31st October. According to an update on the issue, the administration had notified that in case the department fails to auction all the liquor vends in the financial year 2023-24, the remaining un-allotted liquor quota would be distributed equitably amongst auctioned liquor vends.

After several rounds of auction for these leftover liquor vends, the UT's excise and taxation department has been unable to attract any taker. Under current fiscal’s excise policy, the first auction for liquor vends was held on 15th March, where a total of 95 vends were offered for bidding, and still 18 liquor vends are left over. In the last year, the excise and taxation department of Chandigarh successfully auctioned 93 out of 96 vends.