Chandigarh, Mar 31 (PTI) The Punjab cabinet on Thursday approved an extension of the state's excise policy for three months for the period of April 1 to June 30 of the financial year 2022-23.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here this evening, an official statement said.

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It said the policy has been allowed a renewal for a period of three months to those existing licensees who will give 1.75 per cent excess revenue over the Minimum Guaranteed Revenue (MGR) of the financial year 2021-22 for their respective group/zone in order to maintain stability in liquor trade.

However, the number of groups or zones and the number of liquor vends will remain the same.

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The statement further said that the MGR of groups or zones of the state would be Rs 1,440.96 crore for a period of three months.

However, the revenue target of this "short term" excise policy has been pegged at Rs 1,910 crore for the three months' period, it said.

In order to generate more revenue, the Minimum Guaranteed Quota (MGQ) of Punjab Medium Liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor, Beer and Imported Foreign Liquor of each group or zone has been increased by 10 per cent over the minimum guaranteed quota of the corresponding first quarter of the last financial year of the respective group or zone.

Further, to allow retail licensees to lift liquor as per their requirement, the amount of additional fixed licence fee has been increased, the statement said.

The ratio of fixed and open quota of PML shall be 30:70 as was prevalent during the financial year 2021-22. In order to control the production and movement of liquor, an IT-based track-and-trace system would be implemented during the financial tear 2022-23, the statement said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)