Lucknow: Alcoholic beverages will be available on the shelves of hypermarts across key cities of UP.Tweaking its policy in stagnating market conditions to generate increased revenue, the excise department on Thursday relaxed the conditions for stocking alcoholic beverages within hypermarts and multi-retail shopping marts within malls having multiplexes. Though the department introduced provisions to allow sale of alcoholic beverages from shopping marts in malls in 2020, store owners did not show interest in obtaining a licence.“According to the original policy, a dedicated space of 500 square feet within the mart had to be earmarked to house liquor bottles. As the retail space within the shopping marts operating out of multiplexes is extremely premium, creating a separate enclosure just to sell alcoholic beverages was not commercially viable. So, nobody opted to open such a store,” said a manager of a mall situated close to Gomti Nagar.On Thursday, the excise department did away with the rider that was binding the mall management to dedicate a portion in the shopping marts to display liquor brands. The mall management and retail store owners would be free to decide how much space could be allocated for alcohol.Excise commissioner Adarsh Singh said, “It would be up to the mall management and store operators to make the final decision. We are hopeful several players would come forward to take the licence due to the changed scenario in the coming months,” said Singh, notifying the changes in the policy.However, as premium retail vends are already operating out of the shopping malls, the department would allow trade of beer, wine and low alcoholic beverages from such retail counters. “Both strong and mild beer bottles and cans could be offered. Similarly, various kinds of wine bottles and beverages having low alcohol by volume would be allowed to be sold from hypermarts within malls,” said a senior officer.As the size of the plinth of the mall would have to be at least 10,000 sqft wide to be allowed to operate such hypermarts, the policy could benefit retail store operators in Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Noida and Ghaziabad, among other cities. The officer added that a fee of only Rs5 lakh would have to be paid to obtain the licence. The licence fee to operate a premium retail vend is Rs25 lakh. “Opening such stores will be feasible now on,” added the officer.
