Section 17B. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law, or rule or regulation to the contrary, no city or town clerk shall be required to sell the licenses established under this chapter. Each city or town clerk shall, on or after July first of each year, give annual notice of an intention not to sell said licenses to the director on a form prescribed by the director. Said notice not to sell licenses shall only be effective if received by the director by July thirty-first each year; provided, however, that the failure of a city or town clerk to so notify the director of an intention not to sell shall be construed as an intention to sell said licenses during the next calendar year. Where said notice not to sell licenses is received in a timely manner, the director shall not forward for sale in the next year any licenses to the sender of such notice.