Country Spirit
Contracts for Supplying Country Spirit to Warehouses.
As per Rule 162 of Assam Excise Rule, 2016, tenders for a contract for the exclusive privilege of supplying country spirit from a distillery to licensed vendors within a specified area for a specified period will be called for by the Excise Commissioner 6 months before the date from which the contract will take effect. Provided that the State Government may, if circumstances so require, direct that tenders be called for by the Excise Commissioner within a lesser period than 6 months specified above.
As per Rule 163 of Assam Excise Rule, 2016, Any person tendering for a licence specified in Rule 162 shall apply in writing to the Excise Commissioner furnishing the following particulars.
As per Rule 163 of Assam Excise Rule, 2016, the Excise Commissioner shall forward the tenders with his recommendations to the State Government which reserves to itself the right to accept any tender. If none of the tenders is accepted by the State Government on the ground that none of them, on due consideration, appears to be satisfactory they reserve also the right to grant the licence to any person who has not tendered and is considered suitable in all respects:
The Government of Assam shall also have the right to cancel the contract at any time without any compensation to the contractor, if any terms and conditions of the contract are infringed. The contract may also be cancelled during the currency of the contract for failure to supply rectified spirit grade-I or for supply of substandard spirit to the warehouse and in that event any loss incurred by Government shall be compensated by the contractor as may be determined by the State Government.
SETTLEMENT, LICENCES AND FEES ETC. OF COUNTRY SPIRIT SHOPS.
As per Rule 239 of Assam Excise Rule, 2016:
Methods of settlement:
As per Rule 240 of A.E.Rule, 2016, the District Collector shall cause to be prepared lists of the shops in the prescribed form proposed to be licensed during the ensuing term not later than 6 months or such lesser period as may be determined by the Excise Commissioner, before the date of commencement of the next term of the licence to be issued. The site of the shops shall be precisely indicated in the said list. No new name shall be entered in the list and no change of site of an existing shop shall be made until the necessity thereof has been established after a local enquiry held by the District Collector himself or by any Excise Officer authorized by the District Collector.
As per 241.(1) of Assam Excise Rule, 2016 , the District Collector shall give wide publicity and shall send to the Mayor or Chairman, as the case may be, of each Corporation/Municipal Board/Town Committee and the Chief Executive Councilor of the Mahkuma Parishad in his jurisdiction an extract from the list prepared under Rule 240 supra showing the shops within the limits of the Corporation/Municipality/Town Committee or Mahkuma Parishad concerned. On receipt of the extract, the Mayor or Chairman of the Corporation/Municipal Board/Town Committee or Chief Executive Councilor of the Mahkuma Parishad shall forthwith cause a copy thereof to be displayed on the notice board of their respective offices inviting any person who desires to make objections to file written statement on the grounds of such objections within 15 days of the dates of the notice.
(2) The list of shops, together with the objections, if any, thereto, shall be considered by the Mayor, Chairman or the Chief Executive Councilor, as the case may be, and shall be forwarded to the District Collector with such remarks as the Mayor, Chairman or Chief Executive Councilor may desire to make. If within one month of sending the extracts under sub-rule (1) above, no communication is received by the District Collector, it will be presumed that there is no objection to the proposed list. The District Collector may either himself hold or depute a gazetted officer to hold local enquiry on the objection as may be received.
As per Rule 242 of A.E.Rule, 2016, the District Collector shall also cause lists of the proposed shops for the retail vend of liquor to be displayed at the District and Sub-divisional offices, Sub-Deputy Collector’s Office, Block Development Officer’s offices, Mahkuma Parishad Offices, Gaon Panchayat Offices and any other prominent public places as he may consider necessary. Such lists and notices will contain an intimation that any petition of objection field before the District Collector within 15 days of the date of notice will be considered. On receipt of any objection, the District Collector shall cause a local enquiry into such objections.
As per Rule 243 of A.E.Rule, 2016,the District Collector shall consider (a) the report of the Mayor or Chairman as the case may be of the Corporation/Municipal Board/Town Committee or Chief Executive councilor of Mahkuma Parishad, (b) the objections (if any) to the list of the proposed shops, and (c) the record of the local enquiries held under rules 241 and 242 and shall take a decision on the subject which shall be final subject to any decision of any competent court or of the Excise Commissioner or State Government on appeal.
As per Rule 244 of A.E.Rule, 2016, Corporation, Mahkuma Parishad, Municipal Board/Town Committee shall also be used as the medium through which the Collector may consult the public matters connected with excise administration. It shall also be open to the corporation, Mahkuma Parishads and Municipal Board/Town Committee to address the Collector on their own initiative in matters such as questions concerning methods of trading, hours of sale, excise abuses and irregularities fall within the scope of this rule. This rule, however, shall not apply to matters which are technical, disciplinary or purely administrative in nature, if the subject matter of a Corporation’s, Mahkuma Parishad’s or Municipal Board’s/Town Committee’s recommendation is beyond the competence of the Collector, he shall forward it to the Excise Commissioner within his opinion. The Excise Commissioner shall refer the case with his opinion to the State Government for necessary action.
As per Rule 245 of A.E.Rule, 2016, the list of the shops proposed on or before the 1st day of November for settlement, finalized after observing the above rules, shall be forwarded to the Excise Commissioner in the prescribed form with a report stating the grounds for the inclusion of such new shops, deletion or such alternations in the sites of existing shops as may be recommended.
As per Rule 246(1) of A.E.Rule, 2016, the settlement proposal shall contain the name of country spirit shops, Police Station, Last term’s vend fee per LPL, Minimum Guaranteed Quota (MGQ) of country spirit for the individual shops, 15 day’s estimated consumption in LPL against each shop in prescribed format. The settlement proposal shall also contain quantities and retail price of country spirit sold during the current year and the estimate of profit made or loss incurred in working the shop during the current year.
(2) The settlement proposal shall contain the list of reserved minimum Vend Fee and Minimum Guaranteed Quota (MGQ).
(3) In respect of tie on Highest Vend Fee Factor(HVFF) between a number of tenders for a particular shop, the settlement shall be finalized by draw of lotteries.
(4) The term of settlement shall be for a term of three years subject to annual renewal with 6% increase in Minimum Guaranteed Quota (MGQ).
(5) The opening, shifting and closure of any country spirit shop shall be done by the District Collector with the previous sanction of the Excise Commissioner.
As per Rule 247 of A.E.Rule, 2016, On receipt of Excise Commissioner’s sanction to the Deputy Commissioner’s proposal the settlement of shops may be made in accordance with the procedure laid down in the rules below.
