Of 48 cancelled vends in Chandigarh, 20 find bidders

The UT Excise and Taxation Department has received a lukewarm response to its auction of 48 liquor vends. The licences of these liquor vends were cancelled over non-payment of bank guarantee.

The department managed to sell only 20 liquor vends in the e-auction held here today. It earned Rs 131 crore against the total reserve price of nearly Rs 109 crore.

The department received the highest bid of Rs 12.31 crore against the reserve price of Rs 11.57 crore for a liquor vend located in Sector 61 market. The second highest bid of Rs 10 crore was received for a liquor vend located at Khuda Lahora/ Khuda Jassu village against the reserve price of Rs 8.27 crore. The third highest bid of Rs 9.99 crore was received for the vend located in Sector 22-B opposite the bus stand, against the reserve price of Rs 4.96 crore. The reserve prices of these vends were fixed on the basis of the previous highest bids. “Most of the 20 vends were taken by the old contractors of the city. This would abolish the monopoly in liquor trade and the residents of the city will get a relief with liquor now being available at the old prices,” said Sachit Jaiswal, Advocate, Excise and Taxation.

On March 21, the department had allotted 96 liquor vends out of a total of 97 through an e-auction and generated Rs 606 crore. However, the department had cancelled the licences of 48 vends as the allottees had failed to submit bank guarantees mandated under the Excise Policy 2025-26. It earned Rs 23 crore by forfeiting the earnest money and security deposits of these allottees. As per Clause 21 of the policy, each successful bidder is required to furnish a bank guarantee amounting to 15% of the licence fee within seven working days of the allotment. Non-compliance leads to cancellation of the allotment and forfeiture of the security deposit.

Chandigarh