A delegation of All Tripura Retail Liquor Vendors’ Welfare Association (ATRLVWA) on Monday met the Commissioner of Excise to and apprised him of the challenges the retail liquor vendors had been facing in the post pandemic scenario.
According to the senior members of the association, a total of 12 licenses had been surrendered so far owing to the harsh impact of the pandemic. The Association drew the notice of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb as a big portion of the state’s revenue is generated from the liquor trade.
“Several of the retail vendors are waiting for the financial year to end to surrender their licenses. We have been suffering from multi-prong challenges. On one hand, the license fee has increased manifold due to participation of outsiders in the bidding process and the bond owners have stopped the supply showing irrational reasons. Situation has become so difficult that survival of small scale shops is at stake”, a senior member of the association said.
The warehouse association, he said, abruptly stopped the supplies from April 19 last. As per the excise rules, any such halt in supply from the end of bonds is illegal as it is a matter of the state’s revenue. “The bond owners are trying to weaken the retailers by launching a direct attack on our business. All the retailers had been asked to purchase bulk orders only from the five bonds available here. In business we should have our own say in purchase and sales. The dictatorial decision of the warehouse owners is causing serious losses to the retailers”, he said.
Explaining the effects of lateral entry of outside players in the state market, he said, in the initial stage the outside businessmen thought they would pull off a great deal of competition in the local market but after opening shops they realized things were really difficult.
“Due to their participation, license fees go multiple times high. Licenses that used to cost Rs 30 lakhs become expensive to the tune of Rs 2 crore and above. But, within a few months they closed the shops and returned. A total of 12 liquor shops had been closed so far due to this crisis”, he explained.
The remaining part was done by the pandemic, he said. “For 78 days our shops were closed. The Excise department did not give any relaxation to us. The High Court of Tripura has given an order in our favor but nobody is there to hear our plea. We have time and again requested the government to address our problems. If the government wants they can charge a reasonable license fee such as Rs 5 lakh per annum and the remaining amount can be charged through excise duty”, he added.
Comparing the situation with Assam, he said, “In Assam, the excise duty has been reduced by 30 to 35 percent causing a serious challenge for us. Low priced liquor from Assam is being smuggled to Tripura through various ways and people who are selling liquor in black are taking advantage of that. We eagerly want to explain all the issues before Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and I feel once we describe all the issues he will certainly address our problems”.
