Lucknow: The licensing fee for the leftover retail liquor vends in the state was slashed by an additional 5% on Monday. To make the operations of liquor shops financially viable, the excise department has reduced the license fee on three occasions.Out of the 27,995 liquor shops that were operational during the 2025-26 financial year, only 595 have to be handed out to the entrepreneurs in the fourth round of the lottery draw.Presently, 382 country liquor shops, 54 model shops, 24 composite shops and 135 ‘bhaang’ (cannabis) shops have not been handed out so far, as the retailers who operated these shops till March 31 were not willing to get their licenses renewed by paying 107.5% of the fees they paid to get the shop in the 2025-26 financial year.“Existing retailers were given an option to continue operations by renewing licenses. We increased the license fee by 7.5% compared to last year, and the last date to get the shops renewed was March 25. Out of the 27,995 retail shops, 25,617 shops were renewed (91.5% renewal rate). Three lottery draws were held thereafter. The first one was held at the stipulated fee. (107.5%), the second one at 100% and the third at 90% of the fee,” said an officer, adding that the fourth round would be held at 85% of the fee charged last year.Out of the total 54 model shops still left across various districts in Uttar Pradesh, 23 are located in Lucknow. Unwilling to pay hefty license fees amounting to crores of rupees to obtain a license to run a model shop, retailers in Lucknow continue to wait for the license fee to be rationalized.“In Gomtinagar, out of the four, three model shops have been taken up after the third round and are going to be operational now. The fourth one will also be taken up in the next round,” the officer said. Kanpur, Hamirpur and Jhansi are some other districts where existing retailers pulled out from the liquor business.
