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Economics killed Bengaluru’s extended nightlife

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Red tape and the cost of the two extra excise licences compelled owners to select only a few days.

While Bengaluru’s police allowed restaurants and pubs to serve till 01:00 hrs from Dec 24-Jan 1, the economics were simply unfeasible; as a result, most outlets in the ‘pub city’ made use of this generosity only on the weekend & New Year’s eve.

Two extra excise licences were needed daily to operate till 01:00 hrs, from 23:30 to midnight and from midnight to 01:00 hrs. With each licence @ INR 11,500/-, the daily fee totalled INR 23,000/- for the additional 90 minutes of business.

“Since we had police permission to remain open till 01:00 hrs, the excise department should have extended the licences, just as they have done for the weekends for the past two years. Paying for two extra licences only deterred several entrepreneurs from staying open till that time,” said Ashish Kothare, chapter head – Bengaluru, NRAI.

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“Those who wished to keep it open had to approach the excise department and follow certain procedure and then pay the money. It was not financially feasible because apart from that we had to give over-time charges to our staff, which would again cost us more money. So we decided to close it as per the normal timings,” said Arun George, owner, Toit Breweries.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru consumed 6.3 lakh bottles of liquor on New Year’s Eve, a sharp 12.76% increase over consumption on the same day last year. Pubs, bars and retailers purchased more than 53,000 cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) for Bengaluru’s celebration, compared to 47,000 cases of IMFL lifted on the last day of 2014.

Source: NRAI/Agencies

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