In the last year, two applications seeking permission to open liquor stores in Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City have been submitted to the Gujarat Excise and Prohibition Department’s district office.
According to a senior bureaucrat who received one of the letters, chief secretary Pankaj Kumar wrote to five government departments about GIFT City in September, with one of the issues raised being the relaxation of prohibition laws in GIFT City.
Sources told one of the relaxations that GIFT City has sought is to enable drinking in public that is completely prohibited even for licence holders.
This greenfield smart city, which was conceived in 2007 by then-chief minister Narendra Modi, includes India’s first financial services centre and a Special Economic Zone area that covers 29.5 percent of Gandhinagar’s total area of 886 acres. While local laws do not apply to SEZs, opening a liquor store requires permission from the prohibition and excise department.
“One application is from the Grand Mercure hotel, which is located within GIFT City, and the other is from the GIFT SEZ. “We have examined the applications addressed to the office of the superintendent of the department in Gandhinagar and have returned them to the GIFT City seeking with some queries,” a home department official said.
“Any hotel having three or more stars can apply for a liquor licence in Gujarat and Grand Mercure is a five star hotel located in the domestic tariff area of GIFT City. In the applications submitted to the excise and prohibition department in September, GIFT SEZ has also sought relaxations in some of the sections of Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949,” the official added.
This is not the first time that GIFT City has sought relaxations in liquor policy of the state that prohibits sale and consumption of liquor by residents. Former managing director and Group CEO of GIFT City, Ramakant Jha was vocal about liberalising the prohibition policy to attract more businesses into GIFT City, especially from foreign locations.
“The idea to relax prohibition laws in GIFT City is a few years old. We had approached the government in 2014-’15 and asked for certain relaxations. It is an ongoing discussion. We want the SEZ area in GIFT City which is a deemed foreign territory to be an enclave where we can offer alcoholic drinks to some of our visitors and guests, especially those coming from overseas to visit us in the SEZ area. The recent proposal deals with this issue,” said an official from GIFT City.
“Even in SEZs, we haven’t relaxed prohibition laws yet.” Any relaxation is a policy decision that only the government can make. “I am unable to comment further,” a prohibition and excise department official said. Gujarat currently has over 30,000 active liquor permits, with 5,000 of them belonging to non-resident Indians (NRIs) and foreigners from Europe, the United States, and other countries. Over 5,000 permits have also been issued to Indians visiting Gujarat for a short time.
In Gujarat, over 75 hotels have been granted permission to provide liquor permits to visitors from outside the state. For business delegations visiting the state, the government also issues spot and group liquor permits.