Lucknow: More than 40 unique United Kingdom-origin Scotch whisky, gin and other brands will be available at lower price points in key cities of Uttar Pradesh within a fortnight.Carrying out an exhaustive review of the foreign brands and labels that have been registered with UP excise department, senior officials said that at least 40 premium and luxury liquor brands would be affected through India-UK comprehensive trade deal (CETA).Currently, around 1,200 different labels of foreign liquor brands have been registered with UP excise department. A brand registration fee of Rs 1.5 lakh has to be paid annually to register whisky, vodka, rum, gin and other foreign liquor brands, while for registering a beer produced in foreign countries, the registration fee is Rs 30,000.Officials clarified that the number of unique foreign brands available in retail stores of UP should be limited to 350 to 380. “Due to presence of different bottle sizes (90 ml, 200 ml, 700 ml etc), pack formats (glass bottle, tetra packs, miniatures etc), variants (12 years, 15 years and 18 years etc), multiple labels of the same brand needs to be registered,” said excise commissioner Adarsh Singh.While Diageo and Pernod Ricard occupy the major market share of the premium segment, William Grant & Sons, Whyte & Mackay, Edrington, Beam Suntory, LVMH apart from half a dozen other companies have a presence in the state.Offering clarity on Friday, officials said that the MRPs of some popular Pernod Ricard company brands such as Chivas Regal, Glenlivet, Glenfiddich 18, Hendrick’s Gin and Royal Salute (750-ml) have been revised from Rs 3,000, Rs 3,710, Rs 5,500, Rs 3,760 and Rs 11,420 to Rs 2,710, Rs 3,300, Rs 5,070, Rs 3,450 and Rs 9,320, respectively.To avoid shortchanging of the end-consumers who do not mind paying a premium, the excise department will seek the most recent ‘bill of entry’ from the BIO (bottle-in-origin) licence holders that has been paid at customs while importing the stock on shipping vessels through the seaports. After comparing the latest bill of entry with the one that was furnished before CETA came into effect, the department officials would be able to compute the changed overall value that has been paid for getting a consignment into the country.“A fixed formula is levied over the baseline value of a foreign liquor consignment to calculate the final maximum retail price. That is how we would get to evaluate whether the price matrix is being followed is correct or not,” said a senior officer.
