"Till now, imported liquor could be sold in any outlet with an area of more than 500 square feet. But we feel that sales will go up if we allow them to be sold in shopping malls as buyers of imported liquor do not go to local vendors," a senior excise department official said.

The official said for the licence, departmental store owners will have to shell out a fee of Rs 1 lakh per annum. ``The department will also generate more revenue by issuing licenses to stores in malls as there are about 20 shopping centres in the city," the official said. The government had allowed sale of liquor in stores in shopping malls in 2007.

"In order to promote liquor with low alcoholic content, a new licence in the form of L-10B will be given to departmental stores having an annual turnover of more than Rs 50 lakh per annum on an yearly fee of Rs 25,000 for retail sale of wines on an experimental basis," read the notification.

According to the new excise policy, licence for selling foreign liquor will be issued to only stores which have bought the foreign liquor vend, unlike the previous policy which allowed any one to buy the licence by paying a fee of Rs 25 lakh. The fee has also been increased to Rs 35 lakh.

Announcing the excise policy 2010-2011 recently, the state government said vends of both country liquor and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) will be renewed at a "reasonable" rate increase of 5% to 10%.

The vends in NCR districts of Haryana including Gurgaon and Faridabad would be renewed at a rate increase of 8%. The government expects the policy to bring in stability in retail trade.