UP Excise Policy: The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has approved the new excise policy for the financial year 2025-26. Under the new policy, now all the liquor shops in the state will be managed through e-lottery only. Giving information about this decision taken in the state cabinet meeting held on Wednesday evening, State Excise Minister Nitin Agarwal said in a press conference on Thursday that the State Cabinet has approved the Excise Policy for the financial year 2025-26.
One applicant will not get more than 2 shops
The biggest decision taken in this policy is that all the country liquor shops, composite shops, model shops and cannabis shops in the state will be allotted through e-lottery this year. He said that in the lottery system, an applicant will get a chance to apply only once and no more than 2 shops will be allotted to an applicant in the state.
Processing fees divided into 5 categories
Aggarwal said that the lottery system is being implemented, so the processing fee has also been divided into 5 different categories. The first category will include the municipal areas of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur and Kanpur and the area of 3 kilometers around them. The processing fee has been fixed at Rs 65 thousand for a country liquor shop, Rs 90 thousand for a composite shop, Rs 1 lakh for model shops and Rs 25 thousand for a cannabis shop.
He informed that in the second category, except for the cities included in the first category, in the remaining big cities and within 3 km radius around them, processing fees have been fixed at Rs. 60 thousand, Rs. 85 thousand, Rs. 90 thousand and Rs. 25 thousand respectively for liquor shops (country liquor, composite shops, model shops and bhang shops).
The third category includes all municipal areas and the areas of 3 km around them. Processing fees of Rs 50 thousand, Rs 75 thousand, Rs 80 thousand and Rs 25 thousand have been fixed for country liquor, composite shops, model shops and bhang shops respectively. The Excise Minister said that the fourth category includes the limits of Nagar Panchayat and the areas of three kilometers around it. The processing fees of Rs 45 thousand, Rs 65 thousand, Rs 70 thousand and Rs 25 thousand have been fixed respectively.
Rural areas have been included in the fifth category. Here the processing fees for country liquor, composite shop, model shops and bhang shop have been fixed at Rs 40 thousand, Rs 55 thousand, Rs 60 thousand and Rs 25 thousand respectively. He said that a new model in the form of composite shop has been introduced in the new policy. Composite shop means that different types of beer and other types of liquor shops will be combined to form one shop.
All liquor will be available in one shop
By doing this, customers will get all the things at one shop. Agrawal told that an arrangement has also been made in composite shops that if somewhere a beer shop and a foreign liquor shop are next to each other, then they will be combined together to make a single shop. He told that in the new policy it has also been decided that a liquor shop will be arranged at every district headquarters for those farmers of Uttar Pradesh from whom fruits are bought to make liquor, so that they are encouraged.
Premium liquor will also be available in 60 ml and 90 ml packs
The license fee for such shops has been fixed at Rs 50,000 at divisional headquarters and Rs 30,000 at the remaining district headquarters. Agarwal said that this time, under a new system, 90 ml packs of regular category foreign liquor will also be made available. Apart from this, 60 ml and 90 ml packs of premium category foreign liquor will also be available. Along with this, it has also been decided that the country liquor that comes in glass bottles will now be made available in tetra packs, because the chances of adulteration in tetra packs are negligible.
10 percent increase in the minimum guarantee quota of country liquor
He said that like last time, this time also the minimum guarantee quota of country liquor has been increased by 10 percent. Also, in the financial year 2025-26, the license fee was Rs 254 per ‘bulk’ liter. It is being increased to Rs 260 per ‘bulk’ liter. Along with this, it has also been decided that the opening hours of the liquor shop will be from 10 am to 10 pm.
