Cheap liquor in Delhi is a thing of the past now

• The Delhi government ends discount, rebate and concession schemes on liquor for people in the state.
• The decision was taken to prevent large gatherings outside wine shops.
• The government further clarified that its intent behind price slashing was only to promote consumer choice and healthy competition.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led government has decided to put an end to discounts, rebates or concessions on liquor in the union territory to prevent long queues outside the liquor stores in Delhi.

The decision was taken after the government noticed that the new discounted prices were leading to large crowd gatherings outside the liquor shops.

Earlier this month, the Delhi government rolled out a new excise policy, allowing liquor vendors to adopt competitive pricing policy, which enabled liquor shop owners to offer much bigger discounts to their customers.

Liquor vendors in the national capital were offering discounts ranging between 30-40% on Indian as well as imported alcohol brands.

“It has been brought to the notice of the department that as a result of the discounts being offered by the licences through their retail vends, there are instances reported of large crowds gathering outside the liquor stores leading to law and order problem and causing inconvenience to local population of an area,” said the official notification rolled out by the government.

It further said, “It is also to be kept in mind that the Covid situation is not yet over and the danger of COVID-19 still persists and therefore, the huge crowds are likely to aggravate the rise in cases in Delhi.”

The government further clarified that its intent behind price slashing was only to promote consumer choice and healthy competition. However, licensee or shop owners were also engaging in various promotional activities through social media/hoardings/advertisements, which is a non-permissible activity.

Another major reason behind this decision was unhealthy market practices. “It has also been reported that such discounting is also leading to unhealthy market practices deployed purely for short term business gains by some of the licensees and is leading to the distortions of the market.”

Under the new policy, the Delhi government is also looking to set up 849 mall-like liquor stores with walk-in facilities across the national capital. The new liquor policy, which was implemented in November 2021, also allowed the sale of alcohol at restaurants.

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