A bill to legalize the production and sale of domestic alcohol in Gandaki Province has been passed by the Provincial Assembly. The bill to regulate and manage the production of domestic liquor in Gandaki province was unanimously passed in the provincial assembly meeting on Tuesday. After the bill is approved by the provincial head and published in the gazette, domestic alcohol will be legalized in the province. It will take a month at most.

The bill stipulates that the production and sale of domestic alcohol must be registered and licensed at the District Office of Industry and Commerce. There is no ban on the production of alcohol up to 60 liters per year for religious, cultural and household purposes. The government had registered a bill that could produce up to 50 liters per year. After discussions in the Finance and Development Committee and the sub-committee formed under it, it has been amended in sub-section 2 of section 3 and it has been arranged that there will be no hindrance in the production of domestic liquor up to 60 liters and sorghum up to 60 liters. The bill proposed by the government did not include any provisions related to the production of sugarcane.

In the production of domestic alcohol, the bill has provided that any one of millet, papar, ua, barley, wheat or corn, apple, orange, khurpani, mewa, mango, lychee, aiselu, chutro, dimber, any one of the fruits and herbs should be used. The industry that sells through collection, bottling, packaging and labeling must enter into an agreement with the licensed person regarding the collection of domestic liquor. In the bill, the estimated quantity of domestic alcohol purchased by the industry from the producer during the year, the consistency and quality to be maintained in the raw materials used by the producer in relation to domestic alcohol, marketing, production and storage, the estimated period during which the producer will provide domestic alcohol, the area or place where the raw material used for the production of domestic alcohol will be supplied by the producer, and the supplier details, other essential matters related to the purchase, collection and payment of domestic alcohol should be mentioned in the contract.

It is mentioned in sub-section 3 of section 15 of the bill that the manufacturer cannot vary the amount of alcohol specified in domestic alcohol by more than one percent or make a significant difference in quality. Sub-section 4 contains the provision that the state government can establish a laboratory to check the quantity or quality of domestic alcohol or specify that the quality should be checked in a laboratory within the state.

The bacterial species used in marcha should be verified by the laboratory designated by the provincial government and the quality of the marcha should be tested, primary processing (cleaning, drying) should be mandatory before using the raw material for marcha. Section 30 provides that the person, industry, firm or organization that produces only the merchandise must obtain a license and sell it. It is mentioned in sub-section 1 of section 31 that the description of the producer, expiration date, raw materials used, quantity and method of use, weight and price, storage information must be mentioned in the labeling of the product. There will be no hindrance when the producers themselves produce marketa and produce domestic alcohol.

The bill includes provisions that other than licensed firms cannot sell or distribute alcohol in any way, retail or wholesale. Section 18 provides that domestic liquor cannot be sold in plastic bottles or containers. The restrictive phrase states that plastic bottles of specified quality can be used with permission. According to section 24 of the

bill, it has been arranged that the information to be placed on the product label must be written in Nepali and English languages. The government proposed to have a system where labels can be placed in only one language either Nepali or English. Apart from these two, labels can also be applied in other languages.

Those who produce and sell domestic liquor without obtaining permission will be subject to confiscation and a fine equal to the fine, if the quality is not maintained and if the conditions mentioned in the registration and license are not met, the fine will be confiscated and fined from 5,000 to 25,000 rupees in the case of merchandise and 10,000 to 50,000 rupees in the case of domestic liquor. In the same way, in case of production or adulteration of non-edible products, they will be punished with a fine of 25 to 50,000 rupees in the case of merchandise and 50,000 to 100,000 rupees in the case of domestic liquor. If you do not pay the tax due as per the rules, you may be fined an amount equal to that and an additional penalty of 5 to 50 thousand rupees.