Chandigarh, February 8: Haryana Cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal here today gave approval to a proposal regarding granting relief of Rs. 2,19,56,524 in license fee for the year 2020-21 to the retail liquor licensees.

Due to lockdown imposed in wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the retail liquor vends that were allotted for the financial year 2020-21 could not commence their operations from April 1, 2020.

In view of an unprecedented situation arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the excise policy of the year 2020-21 was amended with the approval of the Council of Ministers. As per the amended Excise Policy, the period of operation for Retail Licences and other concomitant licences was amended and it was fixed as from May 6, 2020 to May 19, 2021. In addition, a number of other relaxations were also granted to the licensees so as to compensate them to help to do over the adverse impact of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, a number of representations were received from the liquor licensees, in which it was claimed that they have suffered huge losses in their business due to COVID-19 Pandemic. To take care of such grievances, a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Excise and Taxation Minister including Transport Minister and Sports Minister was constituted for redressal of grievances of the licensees which may arise from low sale volumes, if any, and consequent short quota lifting.

The GoM after holding a total of four meetings to consider the representations of licensees finalized the principles for providing relief to the licensees.