Bhubaneswar: Odisha has hiked the cost of India-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from April as the state government has increased the application fee for issuing licences for “OFF Shop”.
The government announced its new excise policy on Thursday for 2023-2024 fiscal. As per the new Excise policy, no new licence for IMFL OFF shops in the state will be issued this fiscal. However, the OFF shops have been permitted to undertake modernisation of their outlets during the year.
As the Excise department has increased the application fee for new/renewal of ‘OFF shops’ to Rs 1.2 lakh from Rs 1.1 lakh, the IMFL price will go up for the consumers. In addition, the minimum guaranteed quantity (MGQ) and retailer fee have also been increased in the new excise policy.
At the same time, the annual composite label registration fee for FL OFF shops and FL ON shops for the sale of all brands has been fixed at Rs 50,000.
The new Excise policy also announced that no licence will be issued to open new IMFL “ON Shop” in rural areas.
The licence for ON shop for the sale of IMFL and bars will only be issued only in selected hotels in the urban areas of Odisha. Only hotels that have a prescribed number of rooms can avail bar licence from the Excise Commissioner.
In a major move, the new Excise policy has approved the opening of beach shacks in the state to promote tourism. However, the license will only be granted to the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC).
