New Delhi, Nov 13 (TIWN) From now on, only a single licence will be needed to serve liquor at independent restaurants in the national capital as the Delhi government has decided to merge four separate licences ahead of implementing its new excise policy from November 17.

A notification issued last Thursday by excise commissioner stated that existing L-17, L- 17 F, L-18 and L-18 F licenses will be combined into a L-17 licence as per a report of Group of Ministers (GoM) report released in March this year.  The L-17 licence is meant for serving Indian liquor in independent restaurants, while L-17 F is for serving foreign liquor. The L-18 and L-18 F licences are meant for serving Indian and foreign liquor, respectively, along with wine, beer and alcopop at Indian restaurants.  "The move will cut down paper work and facilitate ease of doing business with multiplicity of licences replaced by a single one," said an excise department officer.