KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 ― The City Hall’s (DBKL) alcohol licencing authority will meet next month to develop new guidelines for alcohol licencing, Parliament was told today.

Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa informed the Lower House during Question Time that the local authority wanted to come up with clear and improved guidelines on alcohol licencing after it froze all new alcohol licence approvals since June 1.

“Lately the public has become agitated due to the number of drunk drivers killing people. We have received a lot of views on the matter from NGO, the public and political parties ― especially on how licence are issued, when alcohol is being sold and to whom.

“There was a proposal for the government to review the legislation. DBKL is studying on how to improve the new alcohol licensing guidelines and no new licence can be issued until there’s a better and improved alcohol licencing guideline,” said Annuar.

Advertisement

Furthermore, he pointed out that even in Western countries such as the United Kingdom, there are clear guidelines on alcohol licensing where only certain premises are allowed to sell alcohol and there have also implemented a cut off time to purchase alcoholic beverages.

The minister noted that Malaysia is too lenient when it comes to alcohol sales as there is no cut off time for the alcohol sales and even sundry and grocery shops are allowed to sell these drinks.

In Kuala Lumpur, there were 2,096 alcohol licences up for renewal in September. There are around 200 application to renew their licences and 69 new applications.

Advertisement