Hotels find a loophole for serving liquor

New Delhi: Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have allowed restaurants and clubs to serve liquor in a limited capacity while keeping the bars shut, taking advantage of a lack of clarity in the home ministry’s guidelines.The Unlock 3.0 guidelines issued late last month kept the ban on the operations of bars unchanged, but didn’t make any mention of serving alcohol in other areas of hotels, clubs and restaurants.While these three states have taken the first steps in permitting alcohol consumption in restaurants and hotels, the industry expects others to follow suit since liquor is a critical revenue generator for state governments.Punjab’s Department of Home Affairs and Justice said in a July 31 order that liquor could be served in restaurants outside containment zones, provided they had a valid permission from the excise department. At hotels, it said, bars would remain closed but liquor could be served in rooms and restaurants. In Haryana, pubs, bars and microbreweries are still closed, but liquor can be served in restaurants and hotels . Rajasthan allows restaurants and clubs to serve liquor and hotels to even operate bars.The industry has, meanwhile, requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to define bars based on where they operate, and not as a common setup, so that some of those could resume operation.“Bars in discotheques or clubs where crowding happens may be prohibited. But bars can be opened in a fine dining restaurant or in a hotel which have limited guests,” Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India honorary secretary Pradeep Shetty said.Hotels seek nod to operate“We have also communicated to the tourism minister that closing bars will not serve any purpose. There are other excise issues also which the minister acknowledged in our meeting this week.”With liquor being a state subject, chains and establishments have also been scrambling to seek relief from various state authorities over the licence fee and allowing them to resume operations. Maharashtra has allowed them to defer licence fee payments till September, but in states such as Delhi and Karnataka, restaurants have had to pay.Rahul Singh, the founder and CEO of The Beer Café, said states such as Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan had taken the first steps to provide relief to the industry through permitting serving of alcohol in a limited manner.

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