50 more hotels make beeline for wine shop permits

AHMEDABAD: When the state government has halted issuing and renewals of liquor permits given on health grounds, at least 50 hotel owners are waiting for permission to start liquor shops on their premises. The state government has currently permitted 58 licenced liquor shops to operate in Gujarat.
According to officials of the state prohibition and excise department, 50 hoteliers from across the state, which mainly from hotels in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, have queued up before the department for liquor shop permits.
"With each passing day we get applications for wine shop licences from hotel owners. We have 50 such applications pending with us from across the state," said officials.
According to the Gujarat Prohibition (Amendment) Act 2017, a hotel owner must show a licence to run a food business and must produce the number of customers from outside the state and from foreign countries. The prohibition department will also examine that the hotel is not within 200 metres of an educational institute, a religious place, slums, hospitals, settlements of labourers and residential areas of the scheduled caste (SC) community. Hotels in the heritage category and located at beaches are given priority.
An official added, "The liquor business has become lucrative as it offers at least a 40% profit margin on the sale of each unit. As hotel owners face thin margins in the food business, they prefer to add a wine shop for revenue. Some hotel owners seeking liquor shop permits, do not fulfil the criteria of having its location out of the 200-metre periphery of temple or an education trust."
Hotel owners have to submit a deposit of Rs 1 lakh and annual fees of Rs 25,000 to run a wine shop. "However, some are willing to spend more than Rs 1 crore to get a wine shop licence," an official said.