Changes in excise policy likely

LUCKNOW: The excise department has accepted 'flaws' in the existing excise policy and is most likely to make some 'suitable' changes in the next fiscal. These changes, however, most likely to add to the existing flaws.
For example, the government's intends to break the monopoly of big sharks by going for fresh lottery. But, if by another proposal, application forms are made too costly, it would dissuade small players from entering into the fray, thus making the field open for those very sharks the government is trying to put a curb on.
Sources in the excise department said that on the pretext of breaking the monopoly of big players in liquor trade, a suggestion has been made in the proposed draft for the next fiscal to go in for fresh lottery for allotment of retail liquor shops in the state.Nothing wrong in that, "But the cost of application forms likely to be hiked to the extent that it is beyond the reach of minnows in the trade," confided a senior official of the excise department.