Liquor shops face stock shortage in Punjab

Punjab’s liquor vends in certain areas of the state are facing shortage of popular liquor brands of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).The shortage of IMFL brands arose due to delays in approving labels by the concerned authorities even nearly a month after the announcement of the new excise policy of Punjab on 9th March.

As per the report, the excise department of Punjab is exercising caution on allotment of wholesale licenses, which has impacted the stock availability in certain parts of the state.

The state has a total of 236 excise groups, comprising approximately 6,374 vends, excluding model shops, sub-vends, and stand-alone beer shops. Traders are currently relying on the leftover stock from the previous year.

As per the excise norms, liquor cannot be sold until the label of a brand is approved. The Punjab government has set the excise revenue for 2024-25 at Rs 10,145 crore.