Delhi govt's high level committee seeks feedback from stakeholders on excise policy formulation

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) A high-level committee of the Delhi government for formulating the new excise policy held its first meeting with stakeholders on Monday, officials said.

The committee, headed by PWD minister Parvesh Verma, met stakeholders from the liquor industry to gain their insights on the policy in a meeting at the Delhi secretariat.

"The meeting was held with four stakeholder bodies, including Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), Brewers' Association of India, among others. The government has now started the process of taking feedback from stakeholders to come up with a socially responsible policy," said an official.

Apart from Verma, Industries minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Home minister Ashish Sood and senior excise department officers were present in the meeting, he said.

The next meeting of the committee with other stakeholders, including retailers, is expected to be held next week.

According to government sources, the group of ministers will also study the excise regime of neighbouring states to finalise the policy.

In June this year, the government extended its excise policy for the financial year 2025–26. The current policy was extended with effect from July 1 to March 31, 2026.

The extended policy, also known as the old excise policy, came into operation in September 2022 after the then Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government scrapped its policy for 2021–22 that ran into rough weather amid allegations of irregularities in its formulation and implementation.

The formation of the high-level committee headed by Verma was announced last month by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. The government aims to formulate a "transparent" excise policy that is also socially responsible, she had said earlier. PTI SLB VIT VIT RT RT