Liquor license fee hiked, 4-year blocks introduced

GANGTOK, 28 Nov: The state government, through the Excise Department, has amended the Sikkim Excise (Indian Made Foreign Liquor Imported from Other States Licensing and Warehouses) Rules, 2005. With the amendment, an IMFL dealer will be paying 8-times the license fee. Besides this, the security deposit required to be paid up at the time of applying for license has also been enhanced by the state government 8 times to Rs. 2 lakh from Rs. 25,000.
This will apply to any individual, firm or company desiring to obtain the Excise License to import IMFL.  These rules mainly pertain to individuals or firms interested in the warehousing or storage of liquor.
By the amended rules, which are now the Rules of 2012, the tenure of a license has been divided into blocks with each block being for 4 financial years. So the tenure of a license will be valid for a block of 4 years and the commencement of the block year has been given as 01 April, 2012.
Under the earlier rules, the tenure of a license was 1 year to be renewed annually on payment of Rs. 25,000. There were no block years either.
Furthermore, by the amended rules a licensee is now required to pay an amount of Rs. 2 lakh for grant of license. This is to be accompanied by a security deposit of another Rs. 2 lakh. So at the time of applying for license a dealer will have to shell out Rs. 4 lakh.
The annual renewal fee is at Rs.25,000. This will have to be paid annually for the remaining 3 years of the block year. This is a huge enhancement from the earlier license fee under the earlier rules. Previously the annual license fee was Rs. 25,000 along with a security deposit of the same amount.