Friyana Munshi
New Delhi, March 22, 2021: Arvind Kejriwal government of Delhi has announced a new excise policy. Under this, the legal drinking age in the national capital has been reduced from 25 to 21. The Aam Aadmi Party government has stated that there will be no government-owned liquor shops in Delhi. Apart from this, no new liquor shops will also be opened in the national capital. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia made these announcements on Monday.
A major change in the new policy has been made regarding the age of alcohol drinkers. Earlier, the minimum drinking age in Delhi was 25 years. It has been reduced to 21 years. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said about the new excise policy and said that the government liquor shops will now be closed. Liquor shops will be given to private people through the tender.
It will be mandatory for the liquor store to have 500 sqm of space. The government hopes to increase the revenue by 2 thousand crores annually with the new policy. There are 850 liquor shops in Delhi. Now new shops will not open. The distribution system of the old shops will be corrected.
Sisodia said that there will be a uniform distribution of liquor in Delhi, but no new shops will be allowed to open. There will not be a single government liquor shop in Delhi. To check the quality of liquor in Delhi, the government will create its own international system of quality checks.