Overview
- The Lieutenant Governor’s office approved the new excise policy on Sunday, allowing retail sales of hard liquor including foreign brands and IMFL and permitting alcohol consumption on hotel premises.
- The policy raises the number of liquor vends from two to 20 and extends sales to remote areas such as Nubra, Changthang, Sham, and Zanskar while simplifying licences by cutting required documents from 16 to six and removing district-administration clearance.
- Administration statements justify the reform as a response to an "artificial scarcity" that encouraged smuggled and spurious alcohol and drug use and say fee and base-price changes are meant to optimise excise revenue.
- Religious bodies, the Ladakh Buddhist Association, the Kargil Democratic groups, and MP Haji Hanifa Jan have called for immediate withdrawal, arguing the move threatens social norms and youth welfare and that consultation inputs were misrepresented.
- The decision shifts a long-standing restrictive local practice toward a market-regulated model and will test enforcement, public-health safeguards, and political consent as implementation proceeds.