Annual fees of 50,000, establishment and related assets must be pledged to government; rules for producing wine in the state formulated

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Permission was given in this year's liquor policy to produce wine from fruits. Following this, rules for starting wine production centers have been formulated. The rules have been prepared by the Excise Department. These will now come into effect with the approval of the tax department after being examined by the law department.

Establishments will be given licenses for three years. The annual license fee is Rs 50,000. In addition, the institutions will also have to pay a bottling fee of Rs 5,000. The building and property on which the establishment operates must be pledged to the government.

Another condition is that the operator of the production center must enter into an agreement with the Excise Department. Failure to enter into the contract within 10 days of the issuance of the license will result in revocation of the license and loss to the owner of the fee paid.

The license of the manufacturing center is issued by the Excise Department. For this, the excise should be provided with the details for the production center, technical report, information on where the raw material is sourced and the financial status of the applicant.

The Excise Commissioner will check the information and check whether the applicant was involved in any excise case before and whether the applicant's financial status was satisfactory. The license will be renewed by the Deputy Commissioner. There must be only one door to the rooms in the wine production center.