Highway liquor ban to hit Maharashtra govt by Rs 11,000 crore; 13,000 vends to shut shops

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government would lose about Rs 11,000 crore in revenue when the Supreme Court's high liquor ban comes into force on April 1.

The apex court on Friday upheld the ban on sale of liquor within 500 meters of state and national highways in view of road accidents due to drunken driving.

The order means that the licenses of liquor outlets which fall in the red zone will not be renewed after March 31.

According to the state excise department's figures, the state has a total of 15,699 licenses which are functional in the 500 meter distance from state and national highways.

This covers 61.53% of the 25,513 retail liquor vending licenses in Maharashtra, which will now have to be shut down or transferred elsewhere.

The total number of licenses which operate in the 500 meter area around national highways is 4,969 (19.47% of the total) and the figure for state highways is 10,730 (42%). This includes establishments like country liquor and IMFL retail vends, permit rooms, club licenses and beer shoppees.

These licenses will not be renewed from the 2017-18 financial year.

The state government has said it will implement the court's order and shut down liquor shops that fall in the red zone.

"Maximum number of deaths due to road accidents were due to drunken driving.

“The SC verdict effectively means that 12,967 liquor shops in the state that fall within the 500 meter radius will have to shut down after March 31, 2017," PTI quoted state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar as saying.

Asked about the contention of the liquor lobby about revenue loss, Mungantiwar said, "anyway they are not in the business of selling holy water."

The minister also said that the Maharashtra government was prepared to incur the loss in its revenue and will implement the order of the apex court.

(With PTI inputs)