CHANDIGARH, May 15: The UT excise and taxation department managed to sell only six out of 17 liquor vends during the fifth round of e-auction held on Wednesday, earning a revenue of ₹39.60 crore, well above the combined reserve price of ₹24.32 crore, officials said.
The highest bid of the round—₹10.95 crore—came for a vend located in Sector 22-C market, significantly surpassing its reserve price of ₹4.13 crore.
The second-highest bid of ₹10.50 crore was received for a nearby vend opposite the Sector 22 bus stand, which had a reserve price of ₹3.26 crore. Another vend in Sector 40-C fetched ₹6.21 crore, slightly higher than its ₹6.03 crore reserve.
Despite the premium bids for a few locations, the department has continued to see lukewarm participation overall. In the fourth round held on May 8, 10 out of 21 vends remained unsold.
The department earned ₹60.76 crore from the 11 vends that were successfully auctioned, exceeding the reserve price of ₹47.97 crore.
On Tuesday, authorities blacklisted seven top bidders for failing to deposit security money on time for vends they had won in recent e-tendering rounds.
The third round of auction on April 29 saw only seven out of 28 vends being sold. Earlier, on April 21, 48 liquor vends—whose licences were cancelled due to non-payment of bank guarantees—were re-auctioned.
Of these, 20 vends found bidders, netting the department ₹131 crore against a total reserve price of ₹109 crore.
Back on March 21, the department had successfully allotted 96 out of 97 liquor vends via e-auction, generating ₹606 crore in revenue.
However, due to defaults, it cancelled licences for 48 vends and recovered ₹23 crore by forfeiting earnest money and security deposits.
A senior excise official said the department continues to assess the auction response and may reconfigure terms or revise timelines if the trend of unsold vends persists.
Read more: Only 7 of 28 Liquor Vends Sold in UT’s Second Auction Round
