(This story originally appeared in on Mar 06, 2017)

CHANDIGARH: Bacchus lover will have to shell out more in Haryana with the new excise police effecting an across the board increase of 20% in prices of all the brands of country liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), and foreign liquor in the state.Excise Policy for the year 2017-18 was unveiled by excise and taxation minister Captain Abhimanyu on Sunday. The policy is being tagged as "vendor friendly" as it seems to favour the retailers than the buyers.What's more, those living in Gurugram and Faridabad excise zones will have to pay more for drinking in pubs and bars as the licence fee has been increased from Rs 12 lakh to 15 lakh per annum. This excludes other levies.Unlike previous years, the policy extends several choices to the vendors. Now, the vendor has an option of selling any kind of brand, be it country liquor or IMFL or both from same premises.Keeping in view the orders of SC banning liquor vends along all highways, the state government has given the contractor freedom to choose the location of the vend. This comes with an additional facility of allowing the licensee to open two sub-vends at the places of his choice in the particular zone allotted to him.Abhimanyu, who is also the finance minister of Haryana, will present his third budget on Monday .The excise department achieved the revenue target of just Rs 4,071 crore against the target of 4,900 crore. Abhimanyu hinted at fixing Rs 5,500 crore as target for the next financial year. The minister said that he expected the licence fee and statutory levies for the licencess will help in achieving the current year target.There can be a maximum of 3,500 retail outlets of CL and IMFL in the state for the year 2017-18. Since the licensees have been allowed to open two subvends under each vending licence, the number of vends in rural and urban could go as high as 9,000."Allotment of liquor vends would be made on the basis of zones in a shift from allotment on the basis of group of vends as in the previous year. The zones will comprise six retail vends," said Abhimanyu.