The decision of the State government to impose prohibition in phases seems to be yielding result as the consumption of liquor has come down significantly when compared to the previous year.
The Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB), constituted to check the smuggling of liquor and ganja, booked several cases against those trying to smuggle liquor from the neighbouring States.
The sale of IML liquor from April to December in 2020 was just 126.55 lakh cases when compared to the sale of liquor during the corresponding period in 2019 (239.56 lakh cases) resulting in a drop of 47.17%. On the other hand, the sale of beer in 2020 was is 126.55 lakh cases when compared to 186.36 lakh cases in 2019, said a senior official of the Prohibition and Excise Department.
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Similarly, the sale of IML liquor in December 2019 was 25.88 lakh cases compared to that of in 2020 (21.41 lakh cases) with 17.27% reduction in sales. On the other hand, the sale of beer in December 2019 was 7.93 lakh cases compared to that of in 2020 was 6.14 lakh cases with 22.57% fall.
The consumption of liquor on the eve of New Year too has shown a drop. The sales of IML liquor on December 30 and December 31 in 2019 were 96,330 cases and 1,37,669 cases respectively and they came down to 81,087 cases on December 30, 2020 and 1,04,904 cases on December 31. Similarly, the sales of beer on December 30 and December 31 in 2019 were 34,307 cases and 65,317 cases respectively and they reduced to 22,263 cases on December 30, 2020 and 46,459 cases on December 31.
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In comparison, the sale of IML liquor and beer in Telangana on December 31 was 2.17 lakh cases and 1.56 lakh cases respectively.
The State government has taken effective steps to bring down the consumption of alcohol by closing down belt shops and permit rooms, increasing the prices and reducing the working hours. The number of liquor shops have been reduced by 33% from 4,380 to 2,934 and as many as 43,000 belt shops were closed.