The AAP government Thursday told the Delhi High Court that 489 liquor brands have been registered under its Excise Policy 2021-22 and MRP has been fixed for 428 of them.
The Delhi government told Justice Rekha Palli, who was hearing pleas by several retail liquor traders against the levy of licence fees, that an overwhelming number of brands have been registered under the policy now and there is no reason why coercive action can't be taken against those vendors who are in default of payment.
"Petitioners say (that) one of their prayers is that don't charge us because many brands have not registered, MRP is not fixed... Overwhelming (number of) brands have registered. You can keep getting brands over the time," senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Delhi government, said.
The petitioners are successful bidders for licences for the operation of retail liquor vends and seek to declare the decision of the Delhi government to levy licence fees with effect from November 1, 2021 as illegal.
"I'm not trying to say these people can get away," stated the judge who listed the matter for hearing on December 7 after noticing that a document filed by the Delhi government was not on record.
The court added that in the meantime, the interim assurance given by the Delhi government, also represented by senior advocate Rahul Mehra, that no coercive action would be taken in relation to non-payment of licence fees would continue.
On November 9, the court had asked the Delhi government to inform it about the number of liquor brands where MRPs are fixed and those yet to be done under the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
It had also asked the Delhi government to inform whether registration of any liquor brands has already been done.
On November 11, the Delhi Government had orally assured the court that no coercive action would be taken against liquor retailers for the time being for not paying the licence fees.
No precipitate action would be taken against the traders for now since they are partners in the business, it was said.
The petitioners are successful bidders of L-7Z (zonal licence for retail vend of Indian liquor and foreign liquor) and L-7V (retail vend of Indian liquor, foreign liquor in a zone).
Senior advocates Maninder Singh and lawyer Tanmaya Mehta, representing the liquor retailers, had earlier argued that the government cannot direct the petitioners to pay the licence fee with effect from November 1 as it depends on commencement of business and the authorities have not fixed the MRP of most of the brands and have no right to direct them to pay the fee.
The pleas also seek to restrain the government from demanding the sums of money in the form of licence fees or security deposit and to direct the authorities not to levy or demand licence fees from the successful bidders until the government performs its own obligations under the tender terms and conditions and the Delhi Excise policy 2021-2022.
One of the pleas filed by 15 retailers, through advocates Sanjay Abbot and Ankit Agarwal, had said there has been a great delay in initiating the process of registration of brands and fixation of MRP by the Delhi Government under the 2021-22 policy.
It had claimed that until October 30, not even a single brand had been registered within Delhi under the new excise policy, nor had the MRP been fixed or determined under the new policy.
It said the process from the determination of MRP to retail sale is a time-consuming exercise and if the scheduled date of commencement of business is November 17, being specified by the government, it is a complete breach of obligations on the part of the authorities in delaying the registration of brands and determination of MRP.
Several petitions are pending before the high court against the New Excise Policy on the ground that it is illegal, unfair, arbitrary and violative of the Delhi Excise Act, 2009.
In July, the court had refused to stay the new policy on one of the petitions which contended that the new regime would lead to complete monopoly of the few big players.
The Delhi government, also represented through standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi, has defended its New Excise Policy 2021, saying that the new regime would generate optimum revenue and ensure ease of doing business while eliminating cartelization, proxy players and monopoly.
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