Tag Archives: retail liquor

Karnataka to auction unused excise licences, to mop up additional Rs 1,000 crore revenue

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  • In the 2025–26 Budget, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah proposed allotting unused liquor licences through e-auction
  • To boost the State’s additional resource mobilisation.

The Karnataka Excise Department has initiated the process of auctioning unused retail licenses, in the hope of raising additional revenue of nearly Rs. 1,000 crores. The State Government has issued a gazette notification on the e-auctioning of 579 unused CL-2A (retail liquor shops), CL-9A (bars & restaurants), and CL-11-C (government-owned Mysore Sales International Limited) licences.

The government on November 3 had issued the final notification on the amendment to the Karnataka Excise (General Conditions of Licences) Rules, 1967, Karnataka Excise (Lease of the Right of Retail Vend of Beer) Rules, 1976 and Karnataka Excise (Sale of Indian & Foreign Liquors) Rules 1968 for e-auctioning of defunct/unused licences.

The amended rules are now called the Second Amendment Rules, 2025 in the above three categories. Two new license categories, CL-2A for CL2 (retail liquor shops) and CL-9A for CL-9 (bars & restaurants) have been created for the unused licenses under consideration for auction.

“This is the first time unused and unallotted Excise licences are being auctioned to generate revenue. The government is expecting to earn around Rs 1000 crore through the e-auctioning process. Some licences that the department had issued to government-owned MSIL (CL-11C) and were not opened have been taken back and are being auctioned under the CL-2A (CL2 retail liquor shops) category only. The CL-9A licences (CL9 bars & restaurants) that are being auctioned were discontinued and hence brought under the auction pool,” Joint Commissioner, Excise, Indian Made Liquor (IML), T Nagarajappa has said.

He added that 182 out of 569 will be auctioned for the eight (Excise) districts in Bengaluru Urban District (BUD) alone. Majority of licences will be auctioned for Bengaluru city. The rest will be auctioned in corporations and other taluks. CL-9A is likely to be auctioned for corporation areas like Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangalaru and Belagavi.

Registration for bidders began on December 22, while live e-bidding will take place between January 13 and January 20, 2026, according to the gazette notification. Bidders can participate only after completing registration and confirming online payment in their wallet. They have been advised to complete the registration process at least 48 hours before the start of the auction slot they wish to participate in.

Base bidding for the auction is likely to be pegged at Rs 1.5crore for licences in Bengaluru city. For other areas, it may be between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 1 crore. The process of e-auction is slated to be over by January 10, 2026. The government is likely to mop up around Rs 600 crore revenue through the auctions, according to sources.

Interested bidders must register on the MSTC Limited e-auction platform. A one-time registration fee of Rs 1,000 plus applicable GST must be paid online. The application fee for each licence is a non-refundable Rs 50,000. The government has provided reservations in the auction process: six per cent each for Scheduled Caste-A and Scheduled Caste-B categories, five per cent for Scheduled Caste-C, and seven per cent for Scheduled Tribes for CL-2A and CL-9A licences. Discontinued or unallotted CL-2 and CL-11C licences have been reclassified as CL-2A, while discontinued CL-9 licences have been reclassified as CL-9A. Accordingly, 477 CL-2A and 92 CL-9A licences are available for e-auction.

For participating in the auction, bidders have to pay a non-refundable application fee of around Rs 50,000 and refundable Early Money Deposit (EMD) of around 3% of the base bidding price. MSTC Limited, a Government of India enterprise, will conduct these auctions through a transparent electronic (e-auction) system.

Shri Siddaramaiah, The Chief Minister of Karnataka

The Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had proposed allotting unused liquor licences through a transparent electronic auction to aid additional resource mobilisation for the State. He had made this statement while presenting the 2025-26 state budget. Details of the e-auction schedule are available on the Karnataka State Excise Department portal and the MSTC e-auction platform.

R.Chandrakanth

Ambrosia

Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh’s New Excise Policy; Retail Back with Private Players

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The Andhra Pradesh government led by N. Chandrababu Naidu on September 18 announced a new excise policy to come into effect from October 1, 2024, the highlights been retail sale by private players; availability of cheaper select brands starting from Rs. 99; setting up of premium liquor stores and expecting to generate revenue of Rs. 2,000 crore per year.

Reversing the decision of the previous YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) run government, the TDP government has claimed that there was a revenue loss of Rs. 18,860.51 crores from 2019 to 2024 due to a skewed policy. The AP government has fixed price of affordable liquor at Rs 99. The allocation of licenses will be done through an online lottery, and four license categories have been fixed with fees ranging from Rs 50 lakh-Rs 85 lakhs.

In a white paper, released earlier, the TDP said that the non-availability of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) brands had resulted in an increase in sales of poor-quality brands and spurious substances. It may be mentioned that the YSRCP had promised prohibition in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, but only imposed restrictions on the liquor trade instead of complete prohibition.

Premium Liquor Stores To Get Nod

The new excise policy will be in force for two years. It will also allow for the setting up of premium liquor stores and alignment of liquor prices with Telangana and Karnataka. It also decided to reserve 10% retail outlets for toddy tappers and to open premium shops at 12 locations other than Tirupati.

The Minister for Information and Public Relations  K Parthasarathi said the NDA alliance promised to bring an excise policy that ensures the quality of liquor at affordable price. He alleged several irregularities took place in the previous government in sale of liquor at every stage.

“The cabinet decided to adopt a private retail system for sale of liquor as part of an attempt to increase management efficiency. Of the 3,736 retail outlets in the state, 10 per cent will be allotted to the toddy-tappers community.”

The new government expects to generate additional excise revenues following the implementation of the policy. In fact, Andhra Pradesh had seen a gradual growth year-on-year in excise revenue, up from Rs 17,473 crore in 2019-20, escalated to Rs 23,785 crore in 2022-23 fiscal, even as the YSRCP government was working on reduction in the consumption of alcohol.

Reversing Previous Government Notification

The previous government in a notification in November 2023 had avowed policy of reduction in the consumption of alcohol levels in the State. In order to realize the objective, the Government had taken several measures such as removal of belt shops, dispensing with permit rooms, which are meant for consumption of liquor in the vicinity of shops, removal of private players from the retailing by shop etc.

YSRCP Had Reduced Shops By About 33%

Further, the A.P. State Beverages Corporation Limited had been granted exclusive privilege of retailing of IMFL and Foreign Liquor by the shop from the appointed date i.e. 01.10.2019. Further, the Government had reduced the number of shops to 2934 i.e. by about 33%. Keeping in view the policy imperative and after careful examination of the proposals submitted by the Commissioner of Distilleries and Breweries & Managing Director, the A.P. State Beverages Corporation Limited decided that it will continue the retailing of IMFL & FL through the retail outlets.

The licence period of the Shops shall be one year from 01.10.2023 to 30.09.2024 with the Commissioner of Prohibition & Excise empowered to renew the existing retail outlets run by the APSBCL under Rule 8 of the A.P. Excise (Grant of licence of selling by shop and conditions of licence) Rules, 2019 on payment of annual licence fee.   The policy also said there will be no permission or renewal for shops on the road from Tirupathi Railway Station to Alipiri via RTC Bus Stand, Leelamahal circle, Nandi circle, Vishnu Nivasam, Srinivasam. Likewise, no Shop shall be permitted on the road from Leelamahal – Nandi circle – Alipiri – SVRR Hospital – SVIMS in Tirupathi Municipal Corporation area.

The APSBCL shall be permitted to establish walk-in shops (Elite Shops) in the State as per the requirement but without any change in the number of retail outlets permitted. The previous policy also mentioned that it would take up campaigns to educate the public on the evils of consumption of liquor and other intoxicants.