LAHORE: The Punjab Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control (ET&NC) Department has given conditional approval to hotels to open liquor permit rooms, Pakistan Today learnt on Saturday.
According to details, the permit rooms in Punjab hotels were opened on Thursday and will be allowed to open only for two days next week — Monday and Tuesday — before being shut down for the annual audit and renewal of liquor permits.
The permit rooms in Punjab were closed on March 23 after the government imposed a lockdown in wake of surge in Covid-19 cases. However, the permit rooms remained closed even after the government shifted to smart lockdown strategy, allowing all other businesses to operate under the set standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Sources in the excise department confided to Pakistan Today that the permit rooms of nine hotels in Punjab were allowed to open on verbal orders as the coronavirus committee of the provincial cabinet had not yet taken a formal decision in this regard.
They added that hotel managements in connivance with excise officials were black marketing liquor and selling it at almost 40 per cent more than the official price.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Today observed that managements of all four hotels in the provincial capital were ignoring implementation of SOPs in permit rooms, putting buyers and the staff at equal risk of contracting Covid-19.
Director ET&NC Multan Abdullah Khan, Director Faisalabad Ahmed Saeed and Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Lahore Faisal Shehzad conceded that coronavirus tests of the permit room staff were not conducted by the authority. ETO Rawalpindi Rana Aurangzeb, however, claimed that he had issued strict instructions to the management of all hotels in Rawalpindi district to test their staff.
Talking to Pakistan Today, ETO Lahore Safeer Abbas Jappa said that permit rooms were opened for one day only on Thursday. “The permit rooms will again open only for two days on Monday and Tuesday after which they will be shut down for 10-15 days on account of annual audits and renewal of permits,” he added.
Jappa said that the department had directed all four hotels to ensure implementation of the Covid-19 SOPs if they want to continue operating the permit rooms.
