No proposal to issue permissions for new elite bars in Telangana: Excise Minister

The Telangana Government has asserted that there are no proposals before it to issue permissions to open new elite bars in the State.

The Government replied in the negative to a question on whether there is any proposal to increase wine shops or liquor rates in the State. Excise and Prohibition Minister, Jupally Krishna Rao, was responding to a query raised by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) members T. Harish Rao, K.P. Vivekanand and P. Kaushik Reddy during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly on Friday (January 2, 2026).

The BRS members asked about the number of belt shops that were closed across the State from December 2023, the time when the Congress came to power, till date. Interestingly, the Minister said there was no definition for belt shops in the Excise Act and there were no such entities as belt shops as per the Act.

The Excise department was, however, dealing with unauthorised liquor sales in villages in accordance with the laws in force from time to time. A total of 11,193 cases were registered for unauthorised sale of liquor from December 1, 2023, to December 30, 2025. As many as 10,871 persons were arrested, and 1.14 lakh litres of liquor, along with 445 vehicles were seized in the process.

The department was continuously undertaking raids and special enforcement drives to check sale of liquor from unauthorised premises and was taking action as and when such violations came to notice.