- By Shubham Bajpai
- Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:55 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
As the Delhi government is preparing a new excise policy, it has received suggestions to lower the legal age for drinking beer from 25 years to 21 years, official sources told news agency PTI on Thursday.
The suggestions were received by the committee headed by Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Parvesh Verma, which is currently taking feedback from various groups of stakeholders.
No decision has been taken on the suggestions so far. PTI quoted sources saying, "Nothing has been decided so far, and discussion over the new policy and its various aspects are being looked into at the meetings with stakeholders, including liquor manufacturers and retailers, among others."
Speaking about the policy-making efforts, a senior government official said that the government is targeting an increase in excise revenue while ensuring that no inconvenience is caused to the people.
The idea of lowering the legal age for drinking is also under consideration, as Delhi has the highest permissible age for the sale of liquor. In the neighbouring NCR cities like Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad, the legal drinking age is 21 years.
He added that this disparity in the permissible age for liquor sale causes loss of revenue because those below 25 years of age visit to those places to purchase liquor.
"It has been suggested that under the new excise policy, the legal age for consumption of beer could be lowered from 25 years to 21 years to plug the loss of revenue," the official said.
Retail vends away from residential areas
The sources further told PTI that the government is considering locating the retail vendors away from residential and crowded areas, or places like educational institutions and religious structures to ensure no public inconvenience is caused.
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For this purpose, it was proposed that the policy could have some provision to facilitate opening liquor vends in malls and supermarkets.
"Presently, only 14 liquor vends are situated in the malls, whose number goes to more than a hundred in the city. This is because high rental charges discourage investors from opening liquor vends in the malls," another official said.
(With PTI Inputs)