F&BosWest Bengal licenses liquor sales under the Bengal Excise Act, 1909. A restaurant that wants to serve alcohol needs a Restaurant-cum-Bar licence (category 4(i)). A liquor shop needs a Foreign Liquor "off" licence (4(e)). In a municipal corporation area such as Kolkata, a restaurant bar costs ₹1,50,000 to apply, ₹10,00,000 on grant and ₹5,00,000 a year after that, plus a security deposit of one-third of the grant fee. You apply online on the Excise Directorate's e-Abgari portal and pay through GRIPS.
- Licences are granted per site and per category. A bar, an off shop and a beer-and-wine counter are different licences.
- Fees depend on where the site is: panchayat, municipality or municipal corporation.
- Three charges apply on most licences: an application fee, a grant fee, and an annual fee from the next settlement period. A security deposit of one-third of the grant fee is paid on top.
- Events need a separate temporary bar licence, applied for online.
- Nobody under 21 may be sold liquor in West Bengal.
Before you rely on these figures: the fees below come from the Excise Directorate's consolidated fee rules, as amended up to 16 December 2022. The Directorate lists later notifications from 2025 and 2026 that we couldn't open, so a fee may have changed. This is a guide, not legal advice. Confirm the current amount with your district excise office before you pay.
Which liquor licence does your business need?
The categories are set out in rule 4 of the West Bengal Excise (Selection of New Sites and Grant of License for Sale of Liquor and Certain Other Intoxicants) Rules, 2003. These are the ones most food and drink businesses deal with.
| Your business | Licence | Rule 4 category |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant with a bar | Restaurant-cum-Bar | 4(i) |
| Hotel with a restaurant and bar | Hotel-cum-Restaurant-cum-Bar | 4(j) |
| Hotel with a bar only | Hotel-cum-Bar | 4(k) |
| Club, theatre or other place of public entertainment with a bar | Club / public resort with attached bar | 4(l) |
| Bar without a hotel or restaurant | Foreign Liquor "on" shop | 4(h) |
| Liquor shop (takeaway) | Foreign Liquor "off" shop | 4(e) |
| Beer, wine and low-alcohol drinks only | Beer, Wine and LAB, "off" and/or "on" | 4(f) |
| Departmental store selling liquor | Foreign Liquor "off" from departmental stores | 4(g) |
| Wedding, party or one-off event | Temporary bar licence | Separate online service |
"Off" means the customer drinks away from the premises. "On" means they drink on site. The portal also lists microbrewery and winery licence types. We haven't covered them here because we couldn't find their fees in the published rules.
What a West Bengal liquor licence costs
Fees are set by the West Bengal Excise (Payment of Fees for the Grant of License for Retail Sale of Certain Intoxicants) Rules, 2005. Each table has three columns, as the rules lay them out:
- Application: non-refundable fee paid when you apply.
- Initial grant: paid when the licence is granted.
- Annual: paid for each following "period of settlement" to keep the licence.
On top of these, you pay a security deposit equal to one-third of the initial grant fee before the licence is granted. All fees are paid online through GRIPS, the state's government receipt portal.
Restaurant-cum-Bar (also clubs and theatres with a bar)
| Site | Application | Initial grant | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panchayat area | ₹20,000 | ₹4,00,000 | ₹60,000 |
| Municipal / notified area | ₹50,000 | ₹6,00,000 | ₹2,00,000 |
| Municipal corporation area (incl. Kolkata) | ₹1,50,000 | ₹10,00,000 | ₹5,00,000 |
Hotel bars in a municipal corporation area
| Hotel | Application | Initial grant | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 3-star, and Hotel-cum-Bar | ₹1,50,000 | ₹12,00,000 | ₹5,00,000 |
| 3-star and 4-star | ₹2,50,000 | ₹22,00,000 | ₹10,00,000 |
| 5-star and above | ₹3,00,000 | ₹25,00,000 | ₹20,00,000 |
Hotel bars in panchayat and municipal areas have their own, lower rates in the same table.
Foreign Liquor "off" shop
| Site | Application | Initial grant | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panchayat area | ₹8,000 | ₹50,000 | ₹12,000 |
| Municipal / notified area | ₹12,000 | ₹75,000 | ₹25,000 |
| Kolkata, Howrah and Siliguri municipal corporations | ₹25,000 | ₹2,50,000 | ₹30,000 |
| Other municipal corporations | ₹25,000 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹30,000 |
Beer and wine, and bars without a restaurant
| Licence and site | Application | Initial grant | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beer, Wine and LAB: panchayat | ₹1,000 | ₹10,000 | ₹5,000 |
| Beer, Wine and LAB: municipal / notified | ₹2,000 | ₹15,000 | ₹7,500 |
| Beer, Wine and LAB: municipal corporation | ₹3,000 | ₹20,000 | ₹10,000 |
| FL "on" shop: panchayat | ₹8,000 | ₹1,75,000 | ₹12,000 |
| FL "on" shop: municipal / notified | ₹12,000 | ₹2,75,000 | ₹25,000 |
| FL "on" shop: municipal corporation | ₹25,000 | ₹4,50,000 | ₹30,000 |
Adding a second bar
A restaurant that already holds a bar licence pays a separate, lower fee for each additional bar at the same premises. For a restaurant in a municipal corporation area, that's ₹1,00,000 to apply, ₹4,00,000 on grant and ₹2,00,000 a year. The second and every later additional bar is charged at 50% of those amounts.
Example: what a Kolkata restaurant pays before opening its bar
Using the municipal corporation rates above, our arithmetic for a single Restaurant-cum-Bar licence. The application fee is non-refundable, and the annual fee is due for each settlement period after the first.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Application fee | ₹1,50,000 |
| Initial grant fee | ₹10,00,000 |
| Security deposit (⅓ of grant) | ₹3,33,333 |
| Paid before grant | ₹14,83,333 |
| Annual fee, from the next period | ₹5,00,000 |
The same arithmetic for an FL off shop in Kolkata gives ₹3,58,333 up front (₹25,000 + ₹2,50,000 + ₹83,333 deposit), then ₹30,000 a year. Neither figure includes your trade licence, fire licence, FSSAI licence or fit-out. Our GST guide for restaurants covers the tax side of the food bill.
How to apply for a liquor licence in West Bengal
New licences are applied for online on the Excise Directorate's e-Abgari portal, at excise.wb.gov.in. The application form for an individual sets out these steps:
- Open "Application for New License" on the portal and choose the police station area of your proposed site.
- Upload your own documents: a passport-size photograph, nationality proof (Voter ID, passport or PAN), date-of-birth proof, highest educational qualification, a medical fitness affidavit, an affidavit that you haven't been convicted of a non-bailable offence, your last 3 years' income-tax returns, and proof of solvency.
- Upload the site documents: title, lease, tenancy deed or property-tax receipt; the landowner's NOC if you don't own the site; proof of commercial use of the land; a site plan signed by an approved surveyor; your FSSAI licence where it applies; a valid fire licence; a valid trade licence or certificate of enlistment; and an affidavit that the information is true.
- Pay the application fee through GRIPS and enter the payment details in the form.
- Track the application under "Application Status" on the same portal.
The portal doesn't publish a processing time, and inspection and approval are handled by the excise authorities for your district. Ask your local excise office what to expect before you sign a lease or start a fit-out.
Serving alcohol at a wedding or event
A one-off event needs a temporary bar licence. The Excise Directorate runs a separate online service for it, with two kinds of applicant: Category A, an existing excise licensee, and Category B, someone who doesn't hold a licence, such as a family hosting a wedding at a venue.
The 2005 fee rules set temporary bar licence fees per month, not per day, paid in advance for the whole period: ₹5,000 in a panchayat area, ₹10,000 in a municipal area and ₹20,000 in a municipal corporation area, with lower rates for each additional temporary bar. We couldn't find a separate one-day rate in the published rules, so ask the excise office which fee applies to a single evening before you book.
Rules you must follow once licensed
- Age: under Section 51 of the Bengal Excise Act, a licensed vendor may not sell liquor to anyone under 21.
- Closures: dry days and election closures are notified by the department. For the 2026 Assembly polls, liquor shops were reportedly shut for about four days instead of the usual 48 hours.
- Distance from schools and places of worship: new sites must keep a minimum distance. Trade press reported in October 2026 that new shops from 16 September 2026 must be 500 metres away in Kolkata and other municipal areas, and 1 km elsewhere. We couldn't read the official notice, so confirm the distance for your site.
- Prices: after the price revision of 1 December 2025, shops had to display stickers with the updated price.
- Records and ePOS: the Excise Directorate runs an ePOS system for retailers through Bevco. Our WB Excise ePOS guide covers the login and who to contact.
Selling liquor without a licence is an offence under Section 46A of the Bengal Excise Act, punishable with imprisonment and a fine. Sections 50 and 51 set out fines and imprisonment for a licensee who commits fraud or breaks the rules on sale, including selling to anyone under 21.
What this means for your restaurant or shop
A bar licence is a large fixed cost that recurs every year, so plan the bar as its own profit centre. Price drinks to cover the annual fee, and keep stock records you can reconcile against what you sold.
For off shops, we make BevOS, a counter POS for West Bengal FL off shops. It has a Bengali-first sell screen, barcode and hologram QR scanning, offline billing, and a daily sheet with shelf counts. It exports data for ePos and costs ₹15,000 per shop per year, plus GST. Bars and restaurants including The Irish Brewery and After Party run their billing on F&Bos.
Opening a bar or off shop in West Bengal?
See how F&Bos handles restaurant billing, or how BevOS runs an off-shop counter, in a free 20-minute demo.
Book a Free Demo → See BevOS for off shopsFrequently asked questions
How much does a bar licence cost in Kolkata?
For a Restaurant-cum-Bar in a municipal corporation area such as Kolkata, the published fees are ₹1,50,000 to apply, ₹10,00,000 when the licence is granted and ₹5,00,000 a year after that, plus a security deposit of one-third of the grant fee. These figures are from the consolidated fee rules as amended to December 2022, so confirm them with the excise office.
Which licence does a restaurant need to serve alcohol in West Bengal?
A restaurant with a bar needs a Restaurant-cum-Bar licence, category 4(i) under the 2003 excise rules. A restaurant that only serves beer, wine and low-alcohol drinks can apply for the cheaper Beer, Wine and LAB licence, category 4(f).
How do I apply for a liquor licence in West Bengal?
Apply online through "Application for New License" on the Excise Directorate's e-Abgari portal at excise.wb.gov.in. Upload your personal and site documents, including a trade licence and fire licence, and pay the application fee through GRIPS.
Do I need a licence to serve alcohol at a wedding in West Bengal?
Yes. Serving alcohol at an event needs a temporary bar licence, applied for online on the Excise Directorate's portal. People who don't hold an excise licence apply as Category B. Ask the excise office which fee applies to a single-day event.
What is the legal drinking age in West Bengal?
21. Under Section 51 of the Bengal Excise Act, a licensed vendor may not sell liquor to anyone under 21.
How we checked
We read the Excise Directorate's own pages and documents on 12 November 2026. The fee tables are copied from its consolidated fee rules, as amended by Notification 2068-FT of 16 December 2022. The application steps and documents are from its online application form. The example totals are our own arithmetic. Points we couldn't confirm from an official source, such as the distance rule and closures, are marked as reported. The Directorate lists later notifications from 2025 and 2026 that we couldn't open, so confirm fees with your excise office.
Sources
- Excise Directorate, consolidated West Bengal Excise (Payment of Fees for the Grant of License for Retail Sale of Certain Intoxicants) Rules, 2005: excise.wb.gov.in fee rules (PDF) (checked 12 November 2026)
- Application for a new licence, documents required: excise.wb.gov.in (checked 12 November 2026)
- Temporary bar licence application: excise.wb.gov.in (checked 12 November 2026)
- Bengal Excise Act offences: Government of West Bengal compendium (PDF)
- Election closures: Hindusthan Samachar, 20 April 2026
- Distance rule for new shops: Aabkari Times, October 2026
- Price stickers after the December 2025 revision: Millennium Post, November 2025