Delhi hotels, clubs and restaurants may stop serving booze from today

Also Read: Alcohol shortage in Delhi, but liquor stores to operate only after LG’s nod

Beer Cafe founder Rahul Singh claims that Delhi would completely ban on-site alcohol sales if the deadline was not extended before August 1. In such a scenario, he claimed, restaurants, taverns, bars, and clubs would have to stop supplying alcohol. Singh continued, saying that everyone would suffer greatly, including customers, the government, businesses, and their staff. There will be chaos.

Now, in order to prevent unrest brought on by a lack of alcohol in the city, the Delhi administration has agreed to extend the present liquor shop licences till August 31. However, Vinai Kumar Saxena, the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi, must first give his assent before the city’s 468 private liquor stores can open.

Also Read: Kejriwal govt considering one month extension to its new excise policy

According to officials, LG Saxena has not yet reviewed and authorised the file. He is supposed to do it on August 1 itself. Only until the L-G authorises the AAP government’s choice to put it into practise on the ground will the licence be renewed.

Manish Sisodia, the minister of excise and finance in Delhi, had already declared on Saturday that the nation’s capital will resume the previous excise regime and that only government vendors will sell alcohol beginning on Monday. But in the late evening, the government declared that the current policy will be extended by one month.

Delhi old liquor policy: From dry days to discounts, here’s how Delhiites will be impacted from Monday

Nevertheless, a number of restaurant owners asserted that, should the extension materialise in the next day or two, the problem won’t be as severe as what the retail booze stores will experience. Many of them always have a stock of more than a month to serve their customers.

Also Read: Delhi govt to go back to old liquor policy

The new excise policy (2021–2022) requires HCRs to select alcohol from shops rather than wholesalers. This means that HCRs will have to purchase alcohol from shops for one month as they have for the previous eight. Hotels, clubs, and restaurants will only be required to begin buying their booze straight from wholesalers on September 1 as was the custom under the previous excise scheme.

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