Liquor vendors registered a 24 percent growth in revenue: Mukesh Agnihotri

Himachal Pradesh Government informed the state assembly that the state registered an increase of revenue by 24 percent from Liquor vends as Rs 1301 Cr revenue has been received from vending and a target is laid to increase the revenue by 40 percent.

Replying to a query raised by Kewal Singh Pathania of Congress Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotiri said that after conducting vending of liquors in the state got bids of RS 1815 Cr which is 40 percent higher than the previous years. Deputy CM who was responding to a query in the absence of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in the question hours that last year state got Rs 1297 Cr from the liquor venidng however the increase in the revenue was by 11 pc. He said that the previous BJP rule did not conduct the liquor vending for the last five years. Mr. Agnihotri said that Liquor vending received a good response and increased bids this year as the Congress Govt decided to conduct liquor vending. He noted that so far RS 1301 Cr revenue has been received and till next year, the rest of the revenue is likely to be recovered. He said that the previous government renewed the licenses of the vendors which recorded a small increase in revenue however compared to last year state government has already recorded 

Kewal Singh Pathania said that the previous Congress government had not conducted the vending. He said that the previous government could have earned more revenue if they had concluded the open vending of liquor.