Hotels on Mumbai's express highway now allowed to serve liquor

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The Delhi government has issued an order allowing state-run liquor shops to operate from 9 am to 6.30 pm in the capital city.

The Govt has also directed deployment of marshals at these outlets to maintain social distancing.

According to a government official, about 150 liquor shops have been allowed to open in accordance with the latest lockdown relaxations given by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

There are around 850 liquor shops in the city including those run by government agencies and private individuals.

In an order on Sunday night, the excise department also directed officials to identify liquor shops, which are being run by private individuals (L-7 licensee) and fulfil conditions laid down by the MHA. The officials have been asked them to submit a report within three days.

"All liquor shops in malls and markets will remain closed. The government-run shops allowed will operate from 9 am to 6.30 pm. The four agencies will deploy marshals to ensure that not more than 5 people are present at one time at the shop," shared the officials.

The department has asked agencies to coordinate with the local administration and police to maintain law and order.

The Bombay high court has directed the state government to reply if liquor outlets challenging their closure notices are on state highways or national highways. The HC also directed it to produce the relevant notification which declares roads as state highways.

A bench of Justices Shantanu Kemkar and Mahesh Sonak heard petitions by many liquor outlets, including hotels and permit rooms from Thane district, Vasai-Virar, Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Nashik districts, which were directed to shut down. The Supreme Court on December 15, 2016, directed a ban on all liquor vends within 500 meters of national and state highways after March 31, 2017. The petitioners said the apex court’s order was not applicable to them as they are on state roads.

The judges said as facts are not common and the outlets are on different roads, they will take up cases individually. An advocate arguing for a Nashik outlet on Yeola Nandgaon Road No 25 said a government resolution says it was a state road. He also said there was a procedure mandated for declaring a road a highway.

He said, "It cannot be said that any road is a highway."

Justice Sonak said, "We prima facie agree with you that if you are not on a state highway or national highway, the matter is different. If they say you are on a state highway or national highway, they have to produce necessary documents."

The judges clarified that relief granted to three clubs and a retail outlet in Pune a day earlier was because it was in the city. “Here, everything is dependent on whether a state road is state highway or not,’’ said Justice Kemkar. Posting the hearing on Friday, the judges said they will consider granting interim relief to the petitioners.

The Supreme Court said it is likely to announce the modification order in the second week of July on the plea by hotels and clubs seeking changes in its order banning sale of liquor within 500 meters of national and state highways.

Hoteliers and club owners' filed, review petitions in the top court seeking modifications and exemption to the March 31 order, which has forced several establishments across the country to stop serving alcohol to guests.

The court heard the review petitions from Chennai-based hotels and club associations. States like Arunachal Pradesh had also petitioned the apex court seeking exemptions.

The court had exempted Sikkim and Meghalaya from the ban in view of their topography and terrain. Senior counsel Arvind P Datar is arguing the case for South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA).

In a statement, SIHRA said, "Our request is not to dilute the judgment of the SC banning liquor sale on the highways at all. This application is to draw attention to the plight of 93 hotels in Tamil Nadu which have invested Rs 6,133 crore and employ about 9,450 people directly and 94,500 indirectly to promote tourism…"

It added, "Due to flaws in the system followed by state governments in notifying highways, the SC's judgment to ban liquor has brought down with it certain unintended victims."

Hotel associations from various parts of the country have filed review petitions seeking reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s ban on liquor sales near national and state highways.

The associations, which submitted their petitions, are seeking exemption for hotels and restaurants, which they said were the unintended victims of a December 15 judgment that was thought to be applicable only for liquor vends.

Dilip Datwani, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), said, "This is a blanket order and the topography of all the states is different. Some highways are cutting through towns and cities and are not highways anymore and have not been denotified yet."

Parekh & Co, said, "We are asking for a complete review of the order and for hotels to be looked at separately."

Garish Oberoi, Treasurer, HRAWI, said, "In our petition, we are saying that Himachal and Uttarakhand in north India, which have similar terrain issues like Sikkim and Meghalaya, should be exempted from the ban. We are also referring to restaurants and saying that restaurants with all compliances in place and which primarily serve food and are not bars should be exempted. Resident guests in hotels are not driving after drinking and should be able to access bars in hotels."

R Srinivasan, Executive Committee Member, South India Hotels & Restaurants Association, said, "Various state and national highways are not thoroughfares anymore but urban roads between cities and towns. While we respect the judgement, which is aimed at ending drunk driving, we feel hotels and restaurants have been the unintended victims of this ban and should be exempted."

Liquor shops in Sector 29 of Gurugram have started serving liquor, after getting clearance from the excise commissioner in Chandigarh.

Around 16 bars and restaurants had shut completely or stopped serving alcohol in Sector 19 after the Supreme Court ordered a ban on sale of liquor within 500 metres of state and national highways.

Ten outlets in Ambience Mall along with The Westin, Crowne Plaza and two restaurants also got the state excise department’s nod to serve liquor, sources said.

According to officials at the excise office in Gurugram, the commissioner’s office in Chandigarh cleared 30 outlets. Deputy commissioner Hardeep Singh-led district-level committee, which includes officials of excise department, PWD, NHAI, DTCP, Gurgaon police and Huda, had given its approval to 38 outlets in Sector 29, Ambience Mall, Crowne Plaza, Rajiv Chowk and Sohna Road at a meeting held on April 21.

A senior excise official said, "The clearance has come from the head office in Chandigarh. We will have some more processes to follow now. But yes, since they have got the approval, these outlets can start serving liquor now."

Sources said the excise department is expected to take a final decision on granting approval to outlets in Cyber Hub within a week.

Inderjit Banga, Co-owner of Prankster at Sector 29, said, "The move will definitely revive the night life in Gurugram. There is immense joy and excitement everywhere, especially among our employees who have got jobs back."

Ashwin Chaudhary, who runs multiple outlets in Cyber Hub and Sector 29, said, "I am extremely happy for my employees who have been working with me for six years. Some of them are away at their villages and will have to be called back."

Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), the apex body of restaurateurs and hoteliers of Western India, has initiated a social media campaign against the recent liquor ban.

HRAWI will run a series of hashtags on Facebook that will try and explain some of the common misconceptions. The hashtags include Penalize Drunk Driving Not People, Save Night Life Save Tourism, and Save Hotels Save Jobs among others.

Dilip Datwani, President, HRAWI, said, “Through the social media we will convey a few facts that, in normal times, would have been apparent. In the current state, unfortunately, facts are obscured by surround sound. The facts to be considered are alcoholism is a disease and a social evil; drunken driving is a crime; and, hotels and restaurants serve alcohol. What is of significance is that these facts are not correlated. Any arrow of continuity that may exist is forced. The compulsive alcoholic will find ways and means for consuming alcohol and he will continue to drive after drinking. Just as locking up girls at home is not a solution for preventing rapes, banning hotels from serving liquor cannot be a solution for ending the menace of drunk driving. Drunk driving is a crime, and it should be treated as one.”

Datwani added, “One million jobs, Rs. 200,000 crores loss to the exchequer, possible closure of 15,000 establishments is not a small thing. It is a huge social cost to pay. And we would not have minded being sacrificed if the ban were to yield any results. But reality is that all the job losses and other damages would be wasted. Statistics prove that there is a correlation between drunk driving and enforcement; and not between drunk driving and number of restaurants and bars. If true, there would be no drunk driving cases in Bihar or Gujarat where we have total prohibition.”

Kamlesh Barot, Former President, Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), said, “Most of the affected hotels cater to city residents and not interstate drivers. We are legal licensed establishments that contribute to the nation’s GDP and have played a pivotal role in the growth of the nation’s tourism. With a single stroke the industry has been crippled. HRAWI has always promoted responsible drinking.” 

The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) is considering to file a review petition on Supreme Court's order of banning sale of liquor within 500 metres of highways across the country from March 31.

Pradeep Shetty, member of FHRAI's legal committee, said, "We are considering filing a review petition on the matter. We believe we can have a better hearing now. Previously, we didn't get enough time for the hearing and we feel we were caught in the crossfire of liquor associations."

Members of western states such as Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and union territory of Daman and Diu met to take stock of the matter.

Diu saw a bandh on Monday, with 7,000 people participating in the protest. In Diu, 100 bar licensee holders have been affected due to the ban and the confusion because of a district road which got notified as a highway in 2014.

Yatin Fugro, representative of the local Diu Hotels Association, said, "We were told a major district road got notified as a highway in 2014 and no one was aware of this including our district magistrate. The fight is against the national highway and not just the liquor ban in Diu."

Riyaaz Amlani, president of the National Restaurant Association of India, said states such as Delhi and Haryana have started the process of measuring the distance between highways and hotels.

Manbir Chaudhary, President, Hotels and Restaurant Association of Haryana, said, "We met the Haryana government officials yesterday and they have agreed to consider the motorable distance for measuring the distance between highways and hotels. The process is on. There are 194 bar licensees across Haryana in 22 districts."

Industry experts said the measurement procedure, which will be state specific, can lead to a series of litigation disputes in high courts.

Shetty said, "I can foresee about 50-100 new litigation disputes in high courts as a result of this measurement parameters, which could be different in each state. Parameters could vary depending on how the distance will be measured and from where."

Aashish Gupta, EO of the Federa consultant CEO of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, said the process of measuring the distance is on in certain states and the federation has requested that motorable distance be taken into account. Industry associations are meeting various state officials, he said.

 As per the Supreme Court's order, after closing down unlicenced meat shops and slaughterhouses, the state government in Ranchi has begun a crackdown on liquor shops. 

Since Saturday, the state excise department has sealed 83 licenced India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) shops in the Ranchi and on the outskirts located within 500 metres from the state and national highways. 

Gajendra Kumar Singh, Deputy excise commissioner, said, “Since we began a crackdown on Saturday, we have shut down more than 670 IMFL shops in 24 districts. The crackdown is still on.” 

Earlier, the Supreme Court had banned the sale of liquor within 500 metres of highways. It recently modified the order lowering the distance in smaller towns to 220 metres. 

Besides, the state government has decided to take control of the retail sale of alcohol in the state through the Jharkhand Beverage Corporation Limited (JSBCL) on August 1.

After Supreme Court's order of banishing liquor from bars, permit rooms, restaurants or liquor shops within 500m of the national and state highways from April 1, left around 50 pubs, restaurants and hotels, located within 500 metres of highways in Delhi dry.

According to government sources, 65 vends will be sealed following the Supreme Court order that no liquor shops, pubs, hotels and bars serving alcohol will be permitted within 500 metres of highways in the country from April 1.

A senior excise department official said several teams have been formed to ensure that outlets - pubs, restaurants and hotels - most of them on NH-8, stop serving liquor. Some of the major restaurants and hotels located in Aerocity near the IGI Airport will be affected by the ruling.

Officials said strict action will be taken against violators.

In its order on December 15 last year, the Supreme Court had noted, "The expressways witnessed 4,208 accident cases, 4,229 injured and 1,802 deaths. Figures are also available of the distribution of road accidents by causes during 2014. 1.38 lakh persons were injured in road accidents involving dangerous or careless driving and 42,127 deaths occurred. Injuries caused in accidents due to over-speeding stood at 1.81 lakh while there were 48,654 deaths. 7,307 accident cases involving driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol were registered resulting in 7,398 injuries and 2,591 deaths."

Small restaurants, which had welcomed the composite scheme that offered a GST rate of 5% (2.5% for Central GST and 2.5% for State GST), cannot opt for it if they sell liquor.

One of the restrictive conditions is that the taxpayer opting for this scheme must not be engaged in making any supply of goods which are 'not leviable' to tax under GST.

Liquor is entirely out of the GST ambit.

A composite levy is available for small taxpayers having a turnover of less than Rs 50 lakh. However, the fine print shows that there are many restrictions that will hamper taxpayers (say, small restaurants or dealers) from taking advantage of the scheme. Tax experts said that they have been bombarded with issues facing small players.

Sunil Gabhawalla, Indirect tax expert, said, "Take for instance, a handicraft supplier in Rajasthan. If a tourist visits and asks for delivery of an item by courier, it will be an inter-state sale and the dealer will be denied the benefit of the composite levy."

For dealers, the composite levy is 1% (0.5% under CGST and SGST respectively).

Many e-market places are persuading smaller players to sell goods via the portal. If they do so, they will not be able to take advantage of the composite scheme, as yet another restriction states that the taxpayer must not supply goods through an electronic-commerce operator, who is required to collect tax at source.

With just three days left for the state excise department to enforce the Supreme Court's judgment banning the sale of alcohol along national highways, liquor distributors and retailers are running confused and scared.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the Supreme Court’s judgment, alcohol distributors have also stopped selling alcohol on credit.

Alcohol distributors used to offer a 21-day credit mechanism to retailers but with the excise department yet to renew the licenses for 2017-18 for outlets operating within 500 meters of the highways, distributors have either stopped supplying fresh stock or are supplying purely on cash purchases.

Uncertainty on whether the judgment applies to bars and restaurants has also dampened sentiment and these outlets, which fall along the highways, have also reduced their stock of alcohol, especially imported, as well as premium Indian-made foreign brands. These outlets are also in discussions to offload slow moving stock.

Goa Chief minister, Manohar Parrikar issued directions stating that the apex court’s judgment did not apply to bars and restaurants.

Many of these stores have been operating with low inventories as distributors tighten the leash on supply and credit ahead of April 1. For retailers, the bigger worry is the reluctance of distributors to supply on credit. The demand for cash on delivery has put a strain on working capital in most stores, making it difficult for them to maintain adequate stocks of even popular brands, a retailer said.

An owner of a prominent liquor store in Panaji said the industry was unnerved by the Supreme Court’s judgment and the state government’s lack of interest.

Haryana with the new excise police effecting an across the board, increase of 20% in prices of all the brands of country liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), and foreign liquor in the state.

Excise Policy for the year 2017-18 was unveiled by excise and taxation minister Captain Abhimanyu. The policy is being tagged as "vendor friendly" as it seems to favour the retailers than the buyers.

What's more, those living in Gurugram and Faridabad excise zones will have to pay more for drinking in pubs and bars as the licence fee has been increased from Rs 12 lakh to 15 lakh per annum. This excludes other levies.

Unlike previous years, the policy extends several choices to the vendors. Now, the vendor has an option of selling any kind of brand, be it country liquor or IMFL or both from same premises.

Keeping in view the orders of SC banning liquor vends along all highways, the state government has given the contractor freedom of chose the location of the vend. This come with an additional facility of allowing the licensee to open two sub-vends at the places of his choice in the particular zone allotted to him.

Abhimanyu, who is also the finance minister of Haryana, will present his third budget.

The excise department achieved the revenue target of just Rs 4,071crore against the target of 4,900 crore. Abhimanyu hinted at fixing Rs 5,500 crore as target for the next financial year. The minister said that he expected the licence fee and statutory levies for the licencess will help in achieving the current year target.

There can be a maximum of 3,500 retail outlets of CL and IMFL in the state for the year 2017-18. Since the licensees have been allowed to open two subvends under each vending licence, the number of vends in rural and urban could go as high as 9,000.

Abhimanyu said, "Allotment of liquor vends would be made on the basis of zones in a shift from allotment on the basis of group of vends as in the previous year. The zones will comprise six retail vends."

A two month-old notification of the Union Ministry for Roads, Transport, Highways and Shipping, which in January upgraded 21 major state roads to the status of national highways, will put 90 per cent of the state's liquor outlets out of business, the opposition alleged.

Demanding an immediate withdrawal of the notification by the central government, Congress state President Luizinho Faleiro said the state government needed to lobby aggressively with the Centre, to ensure that owners of liquor outlets and bars do not suffer on account of the Supreme Court's recent decision to ban bars within 500 metres of highways.

Faleiro told media that, "Ninety per cent major roads in Goa are now state and national highways because of the notification. It will affect 7,000 to 8,000 liquor outlets in the state. Which means those many families are going to be affected. This will bring misery to people and the government is just not bothered."

According to the state's Excise Department, there are around 11,000 excise licence holders in the Goa, authorised to sell liquor.

Before the Union Roads and Transport Ministry notification was highlighted by the local media, an exercise conducted by the state excise officials had revealed that between 3,200 to 3,500 bar and liquor outlets would be affected by the apex court's ban.

Faleiro said, "Earlier, the official survey of liquor outlets revealed that around 3,200-3,500 outlets would be directly affected, but now the number would be much more. As many as 90 per cent of the liquor outlets and bars in the state now come under the purview of the Supreme Court ban."

He accused the central government of arbitrarily taking the decision to upgrade the major roads in the state to the status of highways.

He further added, "We strongly condemn this and warn the government, especially the central government, that they cannot take decisions like this, which are not only arbitrary, but high-handed. I would say they are draconian, which will destroy the livelihood of 90 per cent of the bars and restaurants of Goa."

SC's liquor ban on highways order to be applicable to Haryana shops and vends but not on restaurants and bars

The state government has said that the places such as the Gurgaon's popular eating district of CyberHub, where alcohol is served will continue to be in business. But, liquor vends on highways will be shut down on April 1 in keeping with a Supreme Court order.

The decision comes after the country’s top legal officer, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, told the Haryana government that the Supreme Court’s order banning sale of liquor within 500 meters of national and state highways across the country was only applicable to shops and vends and not to restaurants and bars.

A Haryana official said, "We will go by the attorney general’s clarification on the Supreme Court order which means there will be no restriction on restaurants and bars selling liquor."

Rohatgi’s advice will bring relief to other states as well. Southern state of Kerala had got a similar response from Rohatgi after it sought his views.

To reduce drink driving and road accidents that claim thousands of lives every year, the court said on December 15 licences of liquor shops close to the highways would not be renewed after March 31.

The Gurgaon’s excise department had identified 89 liquor vends and 143 pubs in the red zone.

Rohatgi’s advice differs from that of Haryana advocate general Baldev Raj Mahajan, who had told the state that all liquor shops along highways would be affected after which the Khattar government sought the AG’s views.

Mahajan said, "I am yet to examine the attorney general’s opinion. But obviously his view matters as he is also representing the government in the Supreme Court."