PANAJI
A common practice in Goa of surrogate operation of retail liquor vends and outlets by third parties who are not the excise licencees have now found a legal window with the State government tweaking the Excise rules to now allow assigning the licence to third parties.
The finance department has issued a notification to amend the Goa Excise Duty Rules, 1964, by which a new Rule 104-A has been inserted, providing for 'Assignment of Licence' to a third party.
However, either the assignee or his/her parents has to be a resident of Goa continuously for at least 25 years to be eligible for being granted an assignment of licence, a subsequent clause of the newly inserted Rule 104-A, mandates.
In case the assignee is a firm or an incorporated company, then all its partners/directors or in the alternative their parents, have to be continuously resident in Goa for at least 25 years, the clause states.
Also, those disqualified to obtain an excise licence themselves, are not eligible to get an assignment from an existing excise licensee.
The notification was issued by Pranab Bhat, the Finance Under Secretary (Revenue and Control Division) earlier this week and has come into force.
Meanwhile, in another notification, excise duty structure has been upwardly revised making beer dearer by as much as Rs 10-12 per bulk litre.
The excise duty rate on hard liquor however has been kept unchanged.
The last time the State government had revised excise duty rates was in 2020, when duty on beer was hiked by Rs 22-30 per bulk litre.
Premium segment strong beer with more than 5% alcohol content with retail price exceeding Rs 160 per bottle, the duty rates which were Rs 50 per bulk litre have been increased to Rs 60.
