The wine shipments were totally stopped five weeks ago without assigning any reasons, except that 'the excise department was suspending all shipments awaiting a change in the state government excise policy'.
This had implied that no matter even if the excise duty had been paid after de-bonding the goods, no invoice could be raised till further orders, in effect freezing the sale of imported wine, beer and spirits.
The policy was being followed strictly for the last 5 weeks causing severe inconvenience to importers and on-premise customers alike. However, according to reliable sources, the government relented today allowing this trade-trade transfer. This means that if the wine lying at the distributor's excise warehouse has been collecting dust, even after the excise duty has been paid off, it may be released to the licensed customers now.
However, no fresh excise may be paid on fresh stocks to enable the distributor ship it to the customer and further sales are totally under freeze. To various enquiries, the response from the department has been 'hopefully tomorrow'.
The sales of imported wines in Maharashtra is expected to slow down this year and will affect the national consumption as it holds around 38% of the total market.
Subhash Arora
August 5, 2008 |