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This was confirmed by Menino D’Souza, excise commissioner. He also said that taluka level teams, which were supposed to identify the liquor businesses to be affected by the Supreme Court (SC)’s order, will submit their final reports by the first half of March 1.
As soon as those reports are submitted, D’Souza said that his department will start sending notices to all the liquor businesses, which will be required to shut from April 1 in pursuance of the SC’s order.
In an order passed in December 2016, the SC has said that all liquor businesses along national and state highways and within 500 meters of these highways will have to shut from April 1, 2017. The intention behind this order is to curb drunken driving, which results in accidents and deaths on highways across the country.
D’Souza further said, “Around 2,700 liquor vends will have to be shut from April 1 in Goa, as per our interim estimates.”
Overall, there are 11,300 liquor vending licenses in the state of Goa. This means that roughly one in every four liquor business in Goa will be shut from April 1. This will have a huge impact on both the state government’s revenue through excise and lives of people, who depend upon alcohol trade.
In a press conference called sometime back, various liquor businesses had joined hands together to form ‘Goa Highway Affected Liquor Vendors Association’. The representatives of this association had said that they will consider going to the SC to get relief.
Earlier, chief minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, had also said that let alcohol businesses approach the court and the government will help them, directly or indirectly.
Now, the liquor businesses have exactly a month to approach the SC to get relief. Meanwhile, the excise department will start sending notices to those coming under the ambit of the SC’s order to shut from April 1.
