Cabinet relaxes standards for setting up, running bars | Lucknow News
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to a proposal by the Excise Department to relax standards for the establishment and operation of bars in the state. The ministry had proposed three key changes to the existing policy.
First, entrepreneurs and business people interested in opening a bar in UP will not have to search for a 200 square meter space. The Excise Department has reduced the minimum area required to establish a bar to 100 m².
“The Uttar Pradesh Excise (Bar Licensing) Rules 2020 have been amended for this purpose. We reviewed requests from alcohol industry players. Due to Covid-19, they had suffered huge losses. Doing business in a larger space was not financially viable due to high real estate rates. The requirement has been halved now,” a ministry official said.
In other proposed flexibilities, the mandate to seek a business license from urban local authorities to operate a bar has been removed.
In addition, the provision which required the concession holder to obtain a certificate of completion from him from the local development or housing body has also been removed.
Instead of emphasizing the certificate of completion of the structure that houses the bar, the ministry will now accept the approved plan of the building or complex where the bar is planned.
Excise Commissioner Senthil C Pandian said the relaxations will help attract more players into the state’s food and beverage sector. “This will result in increased investment and job opportunities. Due to lower barriers to entry, entrepreneurs will also be able to open bars in semi-rural areas,” Pandian said.
In the last fiscal year, UP had nearly 650 pubs, hotels, restaurants and bars while only 598 licenses have been issued to such establishments this year so far. In Lucknow, 125 bars were operational in 2021-22.
However, this time only 111 bar operating licenses were issued.
Devesh Jaiswal, a member of the UP Alcohol Sellers Welfare Association, said: “The decision by the state government is positive. Traders and the business community have suffered the most from the pandemic. The revised rules will boost business as the standards have been relaxed.
The department grants four types of bar licenses in the state, including FL6 and FL6A to hotels (annual fee in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh), FL7 to restaurants, pubs and bars (Rs 10 lakh) and FL7C to run bars in clubs (Rs 3 lakh).
First, entrepreneurs and business people interested in opening a bar in UP will not have to search for a 200 square meter space. The Excise Department has reduced the minimum area required to establish a bar to 100 m².
“The Uttar Pradesh Excise (Bar Licensing) Rules 2020 have been amended for this purpose. We reviewed requests from alcohol industry players. Due to Covid-19, they had suffered huge losses. Doing business in a larger space was not financially viable due to high real estate rates. The requirement has been halved now,” a ministry official said.
In other proposed flexibilities, the mandate to seek a business license from urban local authorities to operate a bar has been removed.
In addition, the provision which required the concession holder to obtain a certificate of completion from him from the local development or housing body has also been removed.
Instead of emphasizing the certificate of completion of the structure that houses the bar, the ministry will now accept the approved plan of the building or complex where the bar is planned.
Excise Commissioner Senthil C Pandian said the relaxations will help attract more players into the state’s food and beverage sector. “This will result in increased investment and job opportunities. Due to lower barriers to entry, entrepreneurs will also be able to open bars in semi-rural areas,” Pandian said.
In the last fiscal year, UP had nearly 650 pubs, hotels, restaurants and bars while only 598 licenses have been issued to such establishments this year so far. In Lucknow, 125 bars were operational in 2021-22.
However, this time only 111 bar operating licenses were issued.
Devesh Jaiswal, a member of the UP Alcohol Sellers Welfare Association, said: “The decision by the state government is positive. Traders and the business community have suffered the most from the pandemic. The revised rules will boost business as the standards have been relaxed.
The department grants four types of bar licenses in the state, including FL6 and FL6A to hotels (annual fee in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh), FL7 to restaurants, pubs and bars (Rs 10 lakh) and FL7C to run bars in clubs (Rs 3 lakh).