Hyderabad: Telangana Government is coming out with something that can cheer up people who love foreign liquor. The state government has reportedly issued orders facilitating special elite foreign liquor outlets. The new elite foreign liquor outlets are allowed to sell about 100 types of foreign brands. Sources said the excise department had issued GO Ms No:271 dated 26.10.2016 facilitating licensees to set up elite liquor outlets.

However, the GO was not published online and kept a secret. The government normally uploads all GOs on its website. In case, it doesn’t want to disclose the contents of GO, it categorizes it as confidential but still uploads the GO.

Permitting elite liquor outlets to sell foreign liquor brands in addition to premium Indian liquor brands, has turned out to be controversial as existing liquor shop owners have cried foul over these orders alleging that they were issued to give undue benefit to certain individuals at the cost of normal liquor shops.

Wine shop owners criticize the government for showing favouritism towards elite liquor outlets by liberalizing several norms and alleged huge corruption in this deal. Wine shop owners further demanded the state government to order an inquiry to bring out the facts behind it.

The new licence fee is Rs1.25 crore for elite foreign liquor outlet and existing wine shop is Rs1crore leaving the difference amount of only Rs25 lakh. In addition to this, several exemptions are given to elite stores.