By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The Excise department has issued the notification for retail liquor outlets (A4 shops) for the two year period from December 1, 2025 to November 30, 2027.
The notification has been issued for 2,620 retail outlets spread across the State for which the ongoing retail licence is set to expire on November 30. Applications will be received from Friday till October 18 and allocation of the shops will be made through lottery on October 23.
The fee for each application has been enhanced from ₹ 2 lakh to ₹ 3 lakh this time. The department is expecting significant revenue in the form of non-refundable application fee as the applicants are expected to file multiple papers in their bid to obtain the licence. This is more so in the Saroornagar and Shamshabad circles which are known for high volume of business.
The department has earlier announced that the Retail Shop Excise Tax (RSET) has been divided into six slabs starting with ₹50 lakh for areas with population up to 5,000; ₹55 lakh for population between 5,000 and 50,000; ₹60 lakh (above 50,000 and up to one lakh); ₹65 lakh (above one lakh up to five lakhs); ₹85 lakh (above five lakh up to 20 lakh) and ₹1.1 crore for areas with population above 20 lakh. The government will net close to ₹1,400 crore – ₹1,310 crore as retail shop excise tax (RSET), taking the base rate at ₹50 lakh per shop and another ₹78.6 crore in the form of non-refundable licence fee. This is in addition to special RSET of ₹5 lakh a year for each of the A4 shops.
Officials said out of the total outlets, 15% will be allotted to applicants from the Goud community, 10% to the Scheduled Caste and 5% to the Scheduled Tribes. The government made clear that only persons belonging to these communities should apply for allotment of shops notified under these categories.
