The State government on Wednesday weighed the benefits and costs of its decision not to renew the licences of 312 bar hotels when their liquor permit period expires on April 1.
The closure of the three- and four-star category bars, which currently operates on the strength of a High Court directive, will drastically reduce the availability of liquor retailed over the counter in Kerala.
Policy
The government is yet to formulate its liquor policy for the next financial year. It is unlikely that government will abandon the politically contentious decision it took last year to radically reduce the number of liquor outlets, including government-owned ones, regardless of the high domestic demand for cheap spirits. Officials said that fewer than 70 bars, mostly those in five-star and heritage category hotels, would be permitted to serve liquor in the next financial year. At least 24 private clubs in the State would also have the same facility.
The government had extended beer and wine parlour licences to the 418 two-star category bars it had closed last year on the premise that they were “substandard.” However, business was bad at such outlets and many licensees were unlikely to renew their permits next year, Excise officials said.
For law enforcers, the government’s prohibitive liquor policy has raised the spectre of the ascendancy of criminal networks, poised to benefit from the smuggling and retail of contraband liquor.
Ill-equipped: report
An internal report last year said that the Excise Department was ill-equipped to fight bootlegging and drug peddling, which had increased significantly in the prohibitive climate.
The government will have to invest more effort, time, and public funds to prevent the inflow of bootleg liquor from neighbouring States.
Liquor is available on all days in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is markedly cheaper because of the tax difference. Kerala’s porous borders with these States work to the advantage of bootleggers.
The new policy has resulted in the criminalisation of consumption of liquor on unlicensed premises and the number of cases registered in this category has abounded.
