Mumbai: Bars, restaurants to be open till 5 am on Christmas, New Year; Wine shops to be open till 1 am

Nagpur: There is a bonanza for tipplers as they can organise mega celebrations on the occasion of Xmas and New Year. The state excise department on Friday issued a notification extending the timings of the wine shops till 1 am from 10.30 pm on December 24 and 25 and also on December 31.

Further, the government has also increased the timings of the permit rooms up to 5 am from 1.30 am on these three days. 

The decision was taken as the demand increases for liquor on these days for celebrations.

State govt revenue to bump up

A senior excise department officer said that this will increase the sale and also the revenue for the state government.

There are a total of 4,159 liquor/wine shops, 1,685 foreign liquor shops and 4,947 beer shops across the state. In addition, there are 17,000 permit rooms in Maharashtra. These retail outlets clock a monthly sale of about 7.25 crore liter of liquor worth Rs 1,500 crore. Today’s decision will be applicable to wine/liquor shops and permit rooms.

The excise department’s notification came a day after the Chief Minister Mr Eknath Shinde reviewed the COVID 19 situation in the wake of the outbreak in China and other countries and said that there was no need to panic. CM and the Public Health Minister Mr Dr Tanaji Sawant said that although a new type of coronavirus BF 7 has been detected in other countries including China, not a single patient of this type has been found in Maharashtra.

Bars to remain open as well

Maharashtra Government has also permitted hotels, bars and licensed rooms to keep their businesses open till 5 am, usually they have permit to stay open until 1.30 am. They have also been permitted to use music systems until midnight.