Liquor shops may be allowed to remain open for eight hours from Monday in Bengal, an informal communication sent by the state excise department to retailers suggests.
The shops could open at 10am and close at 6pm, ending a 41-day wait for parched tipplers following the Centre’s decision to lift the nationwide curbs on the sale of alcohol from May 4.
The communication, shared by excise officials on social media, suggests that liquor shops will be allowed to open all over the state, except in the containment zones. No official confirmation was forthcoming from the excise department, which said a final decision on sale in the red zones would be taken on Sunday.
Calcutta, Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas and Hooghly are earmarked as red zones. However, these are the districts that contribute the bulk of the sale of liquor in Bengal. Consequently, these districts also earn the most revenue for the state.
Bengal had been hoping to earn Rs 12,731 crore as excise revenue in 2020-21, compared to Rs 11,627 crore in 2019-20. Moreover, it has slapped an additional 30 per cent sales tax on all forms of liquor, resulting in an unprecedented one-time rise in prices from April.
“There is no official communication yet. But one excise officer contacted me today to collect details about my licence and store location,” said a multi-brand retailer in Calcutta.
The informal directive to retail shop owners from the circle officers on Saturday laid down the guidelines for reopening of shops. As per the guidelines, standalone shops will be allowed to open, but not those in shopping complexes.
On-shops — where liquor can be consumed as well — for both foreign liquor and country liquor, pubs, restaurants and clubs are to remain closed. In case an establishment has licences for both off-shops and on-shops, the cash-and-carry off-shop will be allowed to function.
As a precautionary measure, the guidelines state that customers must stand 6ft apart and that a maximum of five customers can be present at one time inside a shop. The licensee has to provide hand sanitisers to all customers, who will not get any liquor if they are not wearing masks.