Carrying Alcohol From Goa

As per B-3 of Import/Export/Transport/Possession of Excisable Articles Procedures, he/she can obtain transport permit from authorized dealers to carry liquor bottles for his/her personal consumption while leaving Goa State.

The person concerned can obtain transport permits from authorized dealers or from the Office of the Commissioner of Excise on payment of permit fee of Rs.10/- per permit. The application for transport permit will surely indicate the amount of liquor that he can carry for permit.  

As regards demand of bribe or confiscation of liquor being transported with transport permit, the person concerned can lodge complaint with Excise Superintendent of the concerned area and vigilance department of the State Government.

Tourists from Gujarat and Maharashtra cannot be issued liquor permits to carry some hot stuff back home, but they take it anyway, posing as tourists from overland territories of Daman and Diu.

While this has been going on for almost five decades, the excise department has now decided to curb this misuse of permits, and has sought information from all states seeking to know whether they permit import of liquor for personal consumption by their residents.

The state excise department issues permits, on payment of 10, for transport of liquor to such states, as permitted under rule 19/B and 88/B, and as per quantity permitted under the Goa,Excise Duty Rules, 1964. The states to which permits are issued are Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, and Daman and Diu.

Tourists from Gujarat and Maharashtra cannot be issued liquor permits to carry some hot stuff back home, but they take it anyway, posing as tourists from overland territories ofDaman and Diu.

While this has been going on for almost five decades, the excise department has now decided to curb this misuse of permits, and has sought information from all states seeking to know whether they permit import of liquor for personal consumption by their residents.

The state excise department issues permits, on payment of 10, for transport of liquor to such states, as permitted under rule 19/B and 88/B, and as per quantity permitted under the Goa,Excise Duty Rules, 1964. The states to which permits are issued are Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan,Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, and Daman and Diu.

Though tourists from several states, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, are seen making a beeline at liquor shops for permits, they cannot, by law, be issued these. They are given permits allowing them to take the liquor to Daman and Diu.

Excise department officials confirmed that most tourists from Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra are given permits for Daman and Diu. "How they later smuggle it into their own state, I have no idea," a wholesaler said.

"Often, tourists from other states take home liquor without permits and are harassed at the check posts in their home states," a wholesale dealer said.

Keen to upgrade the antiquated 48-year-old excise duty rules and allow the transport of liquor to more states, excise officials said they have initiated the process to amend the rules and include other states in the list of those that permit import of alcohol for consumption.


"We don't know if the other states have amended their laws to allow import of liquor for personal consumption. If they have opened up their boundaries then we can amend our law to permit the transport," excise commissioner Menino D'Souza told TOI. 

The excise duty rules have been in operation for nearly five decades and the quantity of liquor allowed to be carried from Goa by visitors has remained unchanged. The wholesaler pointed out that a visitor from Kerala is allowed to carry home just half a pint of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL). In case of some other states, it ranges from one bottle to two bottles. 

In the case of New Delhi, the rules state that the visitor is allowed to carry one bottle of IMFL (of 750 ml) or one bottle of a particular brand of cashew liquor. Excise department officials are clueless about this preferential recommendation for the purchase of this particular brand. 

Excise department collects about 40 lakh annually by way of revenue though issue of liquor permits. The collection will rise further if more states are added to the list.