Chandigarh, February 8: The Haryana Cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Tuesday gave approval to a proposal regarding granting relief of Rs 2.19 crore in license fee for the 2020-21 to retail liquor licensees.

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the retail liquor vends that were allotted for financial 2020-21 could not commence their operations from April 1, 2020. In view of an unprecedented situation arising due to the pandemic, the excise policy of the year 2020-21 was amended with the approval of the Council of Ministers, an official statement said.

As per the amended excise policy, the period of operation for retail licences and other concomitant licences was amended and it was fixed as from May 6, 2020, to May 19, 2021. Delhi BJP Symbolically 'Seals' Liquor Shop, Accuses Kejriwal Govt of Supporting Liquor Mafia.

In addition, a number of other relaxations were also granted to the licensees so as to compensate them to help to do over the adverse impact of Covid-19. Meanwhile, a number of representations were received from the liquor license holders who claimed that they have suffered huge losses in their business due to the pandemic.

To take care of such grievances, a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Deputy Chief Minister Dhushant Chautala, was constituted for redressal of grievances of the licensees which may arise from low sale volumes, if any, and consequent short quota lifting. The GoM finalised the principles for providing relief to the licensees.

The Cabinet also accorded approval of working capital loan of Rs 1,000 crore to Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corp Ltd (HSIIDC) for acquisition of land and development of infrastructure facilities, to make payment of enhanced compensation to the ex-land owners and to meet the working capital requirement for the development of industrial estates.

The Cabinet approved the draft of the Repealing Bill 2021. The Bill now be placed before Vidhan Sabha. As per the draft Bill, 20 Acts of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department which are old and are no longer in use have to be repealed. The Departmental Committee gave its report regarding repeal of various old and out dated acts.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 09, 2022 01:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).