In a bid to encourage businessmen to open bars in the State, the Excise Department has rationalized the fee for bar licences – almost halving the amount. After assessing the fee for bar licence in other States, the department concerned in Jharkhand drew the inference that the cost of getting a bar licence in Jharkhand was too high, and therefore, it was preventing interested businessmen from starting new ventures in the sector, officials from the State Excise Department said on Sunday.

“We have rationalized the bar licence fee and made it at par with the amount charged by other states. The fee for bar licence in municipal areas here was Rs.18 lakh. Now, it is 9 lakh. Similarly, the fee has been revised in Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats too,” said State Excise Commissioner Bhor Singh Yadav.

The licence fee for opening a bar in a Municipal Council has been reduced from Rs.12 lakh to Rs.6 lakh, said Yadav, adding that the licence fee in Nagar Panchayats has come down from Rs.8 lakh to Rs.3.6 lakh.

Sources from the Excise Department said that the high fee for a bar licence reduced the number of takers in Jharkhand. After revising the licence fee, the number of applications for opening bars in Jharkhand has increased from 120 to 146, they added. They attributed the increase in the number of applications to the revision in the fee.

While the revision of the fee is expected to add a fillip to the food and beverage industry here, it is also likely to reduce the number of unlicensed bars in the State and thereby encourage safe drinking, officials said. “Rationalization of the licence fee will also encourage smalltime businessmen of the food and beverage sector to apply for licence,” said Rahul Sharma, Secretary, Excise Department.

Under the State’s ease of doing business policy, the Excise Department is also planning to assist businessmen in dealing with the intricacies of opening bars. Yadav said that the Department is planning to launch a single window system for businessmen interested in opening bars in Jharkhand. “The single window system will enable interested investors to get all the details on the same platform. The investors will not have to visit different departments separately in order to get clearances for opening bars as they will get everything they need on a single platform,” said Yadav.