MUMBAI: The Election Commission of India’s (ECI) direction to the state excise department to declare a three-day ban on liquor for the four teacher and graduate constituency elections in Mumbai, Konkan and Nashik divisions scheduled for June 26 has not been well received by shop and bar owners and the administration, which is heavily dependent on the industry for its revenue. Sukesh Shetty, president of AHAR, an association of over 15,000 hotels and restaurants in the Mumbai region, said they are all ready to challenge the decision in court. Similarly, Sumeet Chawla, vice-president of the Association of Progressive Retail Liquor Vendors (APRLV), said they would approach the court seeking relief as the voter base for these MLC (Maharashtra Legislative Assembly) elections is very limited. APRLV has thousands of wine, beer and liquor outlets as members in Mumbai and across Maharashtra. Shetty and Chawla said the three-day dry spell would lead to business losses worth thousands of rupees and affect the salaries of hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect employees. The ECI has asked the excise department to ban the sale and service of liquor from 6 pm on June 24 to 6 pm on June 26, in addition to July 1, the day of the polls. Pradeep Shetty, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), which represents thousands of star-studded hotels and luxury bars, said there were precedents where the ECI had announced a blanket dry spell and the courts had ultimately limited it to election and poll days and to very specific areas. “We expect the same this time too,” he added. The excise department said that under the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948, such rules exist only for general elections, assembly elections or local body by-elections. They and the liquor and bar owners said the move showed that the electoral machinery had no confidence in even the very narrow and highly educated segments that make up the electoral electorate. Sources in the Liquor Tax Department said that around 2.9-3 million litres of alcohol sold per day generates liquor duty, VAT and license fees, bringing in around Rs 1 billion per day for the national exchequer. “This means that every dry day will result in a loss of around Rs 1 billion in liquor tax revenue,” they added.
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