Dry Gujarat is considering modifying prohibition regulations at the Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar in attempt to attract national and international fintech enterprises as well as top talent to relocate to the state capital.
According to top authorities close to the initiative, the move intends to provide “evening social life” in GIFT City on par with what professionals experience in other finance and technology clusters in India and abroad.
The initiative comes at a time when the Union government sees the GIFT City, which houses the country’s first international financial services centre, as the country’s gateway to the global fintech sector.
On September 27, 2020, the GIFT management wrote to the administrator of prohibition and excise, requesting a relaxation of liquor laws in the GIFT City’s special economic zone (SEZ). The request was to make “evening public social life” possible. The concessions have been requested under Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949 sections 139 (1) (c), 146 (b), and 147.
According to top sources, the chief minister’s office is currently dealing with inquiries concerning the relaxation in the run-up to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in January 2022.
The chief secretary is said to have written a detailed letter to the additional chief secretary, urban development, on September 20, 2021, outlining a plan for developing GIFT City and its surrounding territories. Apart from loosening liquor rules, the chief secretary’s letter mentions improving road infrastructure, extending the riverside up to Gandhinagar, and establishing a fintech institute.
The state currently offers liquor permits to tourists and business travellers from outside Gujarat and India under current rules. “Inside SEZs, the existing notification allows only residents to get liquor permits.” “This is not consistent with the ruling in other centres in India or overseas,” a top bureaucrat remarked. “Liquor bars with wine-and-dine facilities are required in the SEZ region to develop night – time social life that is at least as good as in other centres.”
“Exemption is essential to establish an international experience as well as to recruit personnel from competitive centres abroad,” the bureaucrat continued.
Prohibition was frequently a source of contention between the business community and the political class, cutting across party lines in Gujarat. Pressure from stakeholders such as Gandhians and women’s rights organisations has presented policymakers with a moral quandary when it comes to weakening prohibition laws. The laws have been in effect since Gujarat was formed from Maharashtra in 1960.
However, the demand to repeal prohibition has become louder in recent years, with entrepreneurs alleging that severe liquor rules hinder young talent from relocating to the dry state. During CM Bhupendra Patel’s recent visit to the state, he discussed the issue with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Earlier this year, the Gujarat high court decided to hear on merit over a half-dozen petitions for the right to drink in the privacy of one’s own house. Despite the state government’s strong objections, the high court ruled that the petitions were viable. The petition, filed in 2019, called into doubt specific sections of the prohibition policy, and petitioners urged that they be repealed.
The petitioners further claimed that the government is enforcing a double standard by permitting outsiders visiting Gujarat and defence personnel to consume alcohol. Furthermore, the petitioners pointed out that in the dry state, the government grants permits to the wealthy on health grounds. They have also contested the “disproportionate punishment” imposed by the Gujarat Prohibition Act.