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Protesting distillery units stop liquor production
Tipplers in Telangana will have to put up with dry days soon Unable to bear the burden of hefty licence fees imposed by the Telangana state government, as many as 14 of the 19 hard liquor whisky manufacturing distilleries stopped alcohol production indefinitely from Wednesday
Hyderabad: Tipplers in Telangana will have to put up with dry days soon. Unable to bear the burden of hefty licence fees imposed by the Telangana state government, as many as 14 of the 19 hard liquor (whisky) manufacturing distilleries stopped alcohol production indefinitely from Wednesday.
The managements of the distilleries, located around Hyderabad and Medak districts, took the decision to halt liquor production in the wake of the state government’s reluctance to accept the demand for the reduction of licence fee for the last three years.
As a result, liquor supply to the licenced liquor shops has been stopped from Wednesday morning. Fourteen of the 19 distilleries produce 80,000 cases of liquor every day, meeting 80 per cent of the liquor requirement in the Telangana state.
The managements have been demanding reduction of the licence fee by 50 per cent as the fee burden was eating into their profits for the last three years. Telangana distilleries association leaders said that the TS government increased licence fee from Rs 6.50 per case (with 12 bottles of 750 ml each) to Rs 13 in 2016.
From then, the managements are struggling hard to run the distilleries with meagre profits. The issue has been brought to the notice of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao two years ago but to of no avail.
The association leaders said that the Telangana was the lone state collecting the highest licence fee from the distilleries. The companies in Telangana are coughing up Rs 1.50 crore for the production of one lakh cases of liquor.
Whereas in AP it was only Rs 78 lakh, Karantaka is collecting Rs 53 lakh and Tamil Nadu imposed only Rs 5 lakh fee. The other major hurdle being faced by the distilleries is the government was collecting licence fee on the total installed production capacity of each unit.
The total installed production capacity of all units in the state was 45 lakh cases. But, it produced only 25 lakh cases every year. The association leaders said that the state Excise and Prohibition department assured the managements that their demand to reduce the licence fee by half will be met by July 31. As there was no positive response till Tuesday evening, 14 distilleries halted the production.
Nearly 5,000 daily wage workers lost their jobs with the stoppage of liquor manufacture. The managements also decided not to resume production until the government concede their demand. Bagga, RK, Aroma, SV, Khody, Para and Hyderabad distilleries were among the units which stopped liquor supply.
