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Ambarish Mukherjee

New Delhi , Aug. 20

IT'S cheers for connoisseurs of wine. The Government plans to set up a wine board at the central level for promoting the domestic wine industry. Plans are also afoot to de-link wine from other hard liquor as far as taxation and excise policy are concerned, a step aimed at lowering the retail price of wine.

The proposed wine board is likely be set up on the lines of the Tea Board and Coffee Board and will function as the apex body for the industry with a focus on developing the wine industry, Government sources told Business Line.

The proposal had been mooted by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, which will be the administrative ministry for the board, sources said.

The move follows the recommendations of a joint working group set up by the Food Processing Ministry with representation from other Ministries and State excise commissioners to look into the issue of de-linking wine from hard liquor.

The working group recommended preferential treatment for the wine industry to encourage agricultural diversification, which would offer higher income to farmers and generate substantial employment opportunities, as well as to counter large-scale imports in the future by increasing domestic production.

Following the recommendations of the working group, the Food Processing Ministry has also written to State governments to liberalise the licensing of the wine industry and rationalise State-level levies and other duties to ensure uniform prices across the country and a seamless movement of wine across States, official sources said.

However, a number of legal issues need to be sorted out before the proposed board is set up because of the policy anomalies with regard to wine units set up under the licences of the Central Government and those under the licences issued by State governments, particularly regarding foreign direct investment in the wine industry, sources said.

The working group, in its report, has stressed on the importance of FDI in the wine industry. As of now, FDI is permitted in wine units set up under licences issued by the Central Government, while units under licences issued by State governments are not considered for FDI.

For uniform treatment of all wine manufacturing units, the Food Processing Ministry has asked the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, which issues licences at the central level, to incorporate necessary changes in the licensing policy so that FDI is permitted in wine units set up under licences issued by State governments too, officials said.

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