Ranchi, Aug. 5: The liquor lobby has managed to put the state government in a tight spot pertaining to finalising the retail liquor licences.

After the government’s abortive bid to finalise retail liquor licences in the first round (by July 15), the liquor lobby controlled by Punjab and Chhattisgarh-based parties, intentionally avoided bidding for the major revenue earning districts like East Singhbhum, Dhanbad and Bokaro in the later rounds of auctioning.

“We intentionally avoided East Singhbhum, where the licence fee is maximum in the state, in the bidding process. We will first go for bidding in its adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan, where the fee is comparatively low. It will help us strike a balance,” said a member of the liquor syndicate.

The minimum retail liquor trade fee for all the three categories (IMFL, country and spice) for East Singhbhum is highest at about Rs 3.5 crore, followed by Dhanbad at Rs 3.35 crore. The fee for Bokaro is about Rs 1.73 crore per month.

A liquor syndicate member said they would not respond to auctioning of licence in three districts as the rate of liquor retail trade licence fee in those places was too high.

But Jayanth Munigala, the excise secretary-cum-commissioner, told The Telegraph the government would not reduce the rates as fixed by the member, Board of Revenue.

The new excise policy calls for settlement of all liquor shops (about 800 in the state) at one go. Earlier, it was not necessary for a bidder to bid for country and spice liquor category that saved half of the minimum licence fee.

Interestingly, the East Singhbhum’s case was settled during the first bidding process, but in subsequent rounds it failed to receive a single bid.

The case of Ranchi district has got settled with Black Berry Private Limited, offering about Rs 2.40 crore monthly against the retail liquor trade. Significantly, traders not a party to the liquor lobby are not in a position to bid for the major revenue earning districts as the IMFL manufacturing and wholesaling is being controlled by the syndicate members.