Chapter IV MANUFACTURE, POSSESSION, SALE, PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION.

Manufacture of intoxicants prohibited except under the provisions of the Act. (1) (a) No intoxicant shall be manufactured or collected; (b) no hemp plant shall be cultivated; (c) no tari-producing tree shall be tapped; (d) no tari shall be drawn from any tree; and (e) no person, shall use, keep or have in his possession any materials, still, utensil, implement or apparatus whatsoever for the purpose of manufacturing any intoxicant other than tari; except under the authority and subject to the terms and conditions of a license granted in that behalf by the Collector. (2) No distillery or brewery shall be constructed or worked except under the authority and subject to the terms and conditions of a license granted in that behalf by the Financial Commissioner under section 21. (3) The State Government, if satisfied that it is necessary and expedient so to do, may, by notification, prohibit manufacture of any intoxicant or restrict such manufacture by such conditions as it may notify.

Establishment or licensing of distilleries. The Financial Commissioner, subject to such restrictions or conditions as the State Government may, impose, may— (a) establish a distillery in which spirit may be manufactured under a license granted under section 20; (b) discontinue any distillery so established; (c) licence the construction and working of a distillery or brewery; (d) make rules regarding— (1) the granting of licences for distilleries, stills or breweries; (2) the security to be deposited by the licensee of a distillery or brewery; (3) the period for which the license shall be granted; (4) the inspection and examination of such distillery or brewery and the warehouses connected therewith and of the spirit or fermented liquor made and stored therein; (5) the management and working of the distillery or brewery; (6) the form of accounts to be maintained and the returns to be submitted by the licensee; (7) the upkeep of buildings and plant; (8) the size and description of stills, and other plant; (9) the manufacture, storing and passing out of spirit, and the contents of passes; (10) [Omitted]; (11) any other matters connected with the working of distilleries or breweries.

Establishment or licensing of warehouses. The Financial Commissioner, subject to such restrictions or conditions as the State Government may impose, may— (a) establish or license a warehouse wherein any intoxicant may be deposited and kept without payment of duty; (b) discontinue any warehouse so established.

Removal of intoxicants from distillery, etc. No intoxicant shall be removed from any distillery, brewery, warehouse, or other place or storage established or licensed under this Act, unless the duty (if any) payable under Chapter V has been paid or a bond has been executed for the payment thereof.

Possession of intoxicants, exceptions, restrictions and prohibitions. (1) No person shall have in his possession any quantity of any intoxicant in excess of such quantity as the State Government has, under section 5, declared to be the limit of retail sale, except under the authority and in accordance with the terms and conditions of—

Prohibition of possession of intoxicants unlawfully manufactured, imported, etc. No person shall have in his possession any quantity of any intoxicant, knowing the same to have been unlawfully improved, transported, manufactured, cultivated or collected, or knowing the prescribed duty not to have paid thereon.

Prohibition of purchase, sale, and consumption of intoxicants. No liquor shall be bottled for sale and no intoxicant shall be sold, except under the authority and subject to the terms and conditions of a license granted in that behalf; provided that— (1) a person licenced under section 20 to cultivate the hemp plant may sell without a license those portions of the plant from which any intoxicating drug can be manufactured to any person licensed under this Act to deal in the same or to any officer whom the Financial Commissioner may appoint in this behalf; (2) a person having the right to the tari drawn from any tree may sell the same without a license to a person licensed to manufacture or sell tari under this Act; (3) on such conditions as the Financial Commissioner may determine, a license for sale under the excise law for the time being in force in other parts of the whole of India except part B States may be deemed to be a license granted in that behalf under this Act; (4) nothing in this section applies to the sale of any foreign liquor lawfully procured by any person for his private use and sold by him or on his behalf or on behalf of his representatives in interest upon his quitting a station or after his decease. (5) The State Government, if satisfied, that it is necessary or expedient so to do, may by notification, prohibit,— (a) the sale of any intoxicant or restrict such sale by such conditions as it may notify; and (b) the purchase and consumption of any intoxicants or restrict such purchase and consumption by such conditions as it may notify.

Grant of lease of manufacture, etc. (1) The State Government may lease to any individual not below the age of twenty-one years or association of persons or partnership firm or body corporate, on such conditions and for such period as it may deem fit, the right— (i) of manufacturing or of supplying by wholesale, or of both; or (ii) of selling by wholesale or by retail; or (iii) of manufacturing or of supplying by wholesale, or of both and of selling by retail, any excisable article within any specified local area. (2) The Collector shall grant to a lessee under sub-section (1) a license in the term of his lease; and when there is no condition in the lease which prohibits sub-letting may, on the application of the lessee, grant a license to any sub-lessee approved by the Collector.

Within the limits of any military cantonments, and within such distance from those limits as the Central Government in any case may prescribe, no license for the manufacture or sale of liquor and no lease of the retail vend or liquor, such as described in section 27, shall be granted unless with the consent of the Commanding Officer.

Prohibition of sale to persons under the age of eighteen years. No licensed vendor and no person in the employ of such vendor or acting on his behalf shall sell or deliver any liquor or intoxicating drug to any person apparently under the age of twenty-one years whether for consumption by such person or by another person and whether for consumption on or off the premises of such vendor.

Prohibition of employment of men under the age of 25 years and of women. No person who is licensed to sell any liquor or intoxicating drug for consumption on his premises shall during the hours in which such premises are kept open for business, employ or permit to be employed, either with or without remuneration, any man under the age of twenty-one years or any woman in any part of such premises in which such liquor or intoxicating drug is consumed by the public.

An excise duty or a countervailing duty, as the case may be, at such rate or rates as the State Government shall direct, may be imposed; either generally or for any specified local area, on any excisable article— (a) imported, exported or trasported in accordance with the provisions of section 16; or (b) manufactured or cultivated under any license granted under section 20; or (c) manufactured in any distillery established, or any distillery or brewery licensed under section 21; Provided as follows:— (i) duty shall not be so imposed on any article which has been imported into India and was liable on importation to duty under the Indian Tarrif Act, 1894, or the Sea Customs Act, 1878; (ii) [Omitted]. Explanation.—Duty may be imposed under this section at different rates according to the places to which any excisable article is to be removed for consumption, or according to the...

Manners in which duty may be levied. Subject to such rules regulating the time, place and manner as the Financial Commissioner may prescribe, such duty shall be levied rateably on the quantity of excisable article imported, exported, transported, collected or manufactured in, or issued from, a distillery, brewery or warehouse: Provided that duty may be levied— (a) on intoxicating drugs by an acreage rate levied on the cultivation of the hemp plant, or by a rate charged on the quantity collected; (b) on spirit or beer manufactured in any distillery extablished, or any distillery or brewery licensed, under this Act, in accordance with such scale of equivalents calculated on the quantity of materials used, or by the degree of attenuation of the wash or wort, as the case may be, as the State Government may prescribe; (c) on tari, by a tax on each tree from which the tari is drawn: Provided further that, where payment is made upon issue of an excisable article for sale from a warehouse established or licensed under section 22(a) it shall be made— (a) if the State Government by notification so directs, at the rate of duty which was in force at the date of import of that article; or (b) in the absence of such direction by the State Government, at the rate of duty which is in force on that article on the date when it is issued from the warehouse.

Payment for grant of leases. Insertd of or in addition to any duty leviable under this Chapter the State Government may accept payment of a sum in consideration of the lease of any right under section 27.