Jagan Mohan Reddy increases licence fee for bars

Vijayawada: The state government on Friday announced hefty license fee hikes for setting up of bars and micro breweries across the State.

According to the revised policy, that was issued through a GO, a micro brewery or a bar in a 3-star hotel has to pay Rs 1.5 crore per annum as license fee and non-refundable registration charge.

For bars in areas having less than 50,000 population, the annual license fee and non-refundable registration has been fixed at Rs 25 lakh, while for localities with population from 50,001 to five lakh it will be Rs 50 lakh and for those with over five lakh population, the fee will be Rs 75 lakh. Renewal of license for the second year will be with a 10 percent enhancement from the first year’s amount.

The Commissioner of Prohibition & Excise will fix the number of bars in each of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) like Municipal Corporation, Municipality and Nagar Panchayats, duly reducing the existing number by 40 per cent. In case only one bar exists in a ULB, the number will be retained. The number of bars in respect of 3-Star and above hotels and micro breweries existing in the ULB shall be excluded from the existing number of bars and the remaining ones will be reduced by 40pc.

The licence period shall be two years from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021. In case of more than one applicant in a notified area, draw of lots by the respective district collectors will decide the eventual licensee. The business hours will be from 11am to 10 pm in respect of bars other than 3-Star and above hotels and food supply up to 11pm. For star hotels, the business hours shall be from 11am to 11pm and food supply up to 12 midnight.

Another GO was also issued cancelling the existing licenses of bars across the State.