The Uttar Pradesh government has simplified the process of granting licence for opening bars in the state.
The new rules, Uttar Pradesh Excise (Grant of Bar Licences) Rules, 2020, were approved by the cabinet which met here on Friday.
As per the new rules, the provision of granting bar licences on the recommendation of the committee headed by the divisional commissioner has been scrapped.
The excise commissioner has now been delegated the authority to issue the licence on the recommendation of the committee in each district headed by the district magistrate.
The rules provide for decentralisation of approvals and simplification of the process and therefore reduce the number of process transactions from around 28 to just eight.
The new rules will take far less time now in the grant of bar licences and will help the hospitality industry besides bringing higher revenue to the exchequer.
Earlier, as it was mandatory for the restaurant to be operational in the premises at the time of applying for the bar license, the applicant had to incur losses and unnecessary expenditure in running the restaurant without the bar.
Under the new rules, a restaurant has to be made operational in the premises by the time of depositing the licence fee after the approval of the bar license by the excise commissioner.
The new rules are futuristic in nature. To promote tourism, bar licences will be provided in airport lounges, special trains and domestic and international cruises. Besides, now every bar and club licensed premises will be geo-tagged.
To ensure transparency and ease of doing business, the process of granting bar licence shall be online.
Earlier, the licence fee was charged for the entire year, irrespective of the month of sanction of the bar licence. Now, the licence fee will be charged only for the remaining period of the year, exempting the licence fees of the quarters prior to the month in which the licence is sanctioned.
It will be mandatory to have a minimum floor area of 200 square metres and a minimum seating capacity of 40 persons for the premises for which the bar licence is sought.
Earlier, it was mandatory for bar licenses premises to have sufficient parking space. Now private parking, valet parking arrangement within 500 metres of the premises will be considered sufficient.
If a bar is located in a mall or in any commercial complex, then the parking facilities and washrooms of the mall or complex will be considered as the facilities for the bar.
It will be compulsory to enclose completion certificate of the building or an affidavit along with supporting documents under the provisions of Section 15-A (2) of the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Planning and Development Act, 1973 with the application form.
In case of being aggrieved by the decision of the district level bar committee regarding the sanction of licences, an appeal can be filed before the divisional commissioner.
Changes in licensed premises of bar can be approved by the excise commissioner on the recommendation of the district level committee by charging 10 percent of annual licence fee.
Event bar licences for a special event will be issued online for a period of continuous six hours in between 8 am to 12 midnight, which can be extended up to 1 pm with the prior approval of the licensing authority on payment of additional licence fee.
Official sources said that the new rules were fair and just with respect to penalties and compounding so that no licensee felt the brunt of penal action, if he ensured compliance with the rules.
In case of being found indulging in activities like holding liquor consumption competition in order to boost the sales, a fine of Rs.25,000 will be imposed for the first offence and Rs.50,000 for the second offence and on the third time, the licence will be cancelled.
