42,000 Applications for Liquor Shops, Lottery Today

The Telangana excise department which opened the doors for huge new income with its new liquor policy, received a record number of 42,905 applications for liquor shops in the State, till Wednesday.

The last date for applications is October 17, Thursday. The licence winners will be selected on October 18 through a lottery.

The State's new liquor policy will be effective from November 1, 2019, to November 1, 2021.

The number of liquor shops to be opened in the State has been fixed at 2,216, including 173 in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Liquor is the main source of income for the Telangana government, and the State government is focused on further increasing alcohol sales to increase the revenues of the State. To this effect, it increased the non-refundable application fee from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.

This did not have much of an effect, however, as witnessed by the huge number of applications received. The 41,000 applications in 2017 were the record for the excise department, which earned Rs 410 crores through the non-refundable application fee then. This time the department has received 42,905 applications (and counting), and the revenue generated will be double of that of 2017 due to the increase in the non-refundable application fee. The Telangana new liquor policy thus seems to be yielding fruitful results to the KCR government.

Of the 42,905 applications filled in Telangana for new liquor policy, some applications were received from the people of Andhra Pradesh.