The Kerala government on Thursday initiated measures to make it legal for bars and beer parlours to sell liquor as takeaways. However, it did not set a date for the resumption of the sale of legal alcohol in Kerala.
An Excise official said that bars would have to display the catalogue and price list of liquor. They could only levy customers the per bottle rate charged by Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco). The licensees would get a 20% profit margin on the warehouse price of duty-paid liquor.
Officials said five-star and seven-star hotels might not opt for selling liquor as parcels at bottle rate.
Additional revenue
The government hopes to raise additional annual revenue of ₹2,000 crore by restarting liquor sales. The managements have to ensure social distancing norms are followed in their premises.
Employees have to wear mask and gloves, provide hand sanitisers for the public and disinfect the sales counter frequently. They should not allow overcrowding or long queues within the precincts.
Amended rules soon
The current law allows only for on-premise consumption of liquor. It prohibits licensees from dispensing unopened alcohol bottles as parcels. The government will amend the rules to facilitate the sale of liquor as sealed bottles through bars as a one-off measure.
It said the move was to mitigate the COVID-19 transmission risk posed by the queuing up of customers in front of Bevco outlets.
The government did not want unruly crowds in front of liquor outlets as witnessed in the neighbouring States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.
Officials said the measure was temporary and the government would withdraw the facility once the pandemic threat receded.
Online order based queue system
The government is also likely to finalise the tender submitted by as many as 17 IT firms to build a software to enable Bevco to sell liquor online via a virtual queue system to prevent crowding at its 300 outlets.
The police department had employed a similar scheme to regulate visitors at Sabarimala by allotting them specific time for arrival at the shrine.
The online sale of liquor would require consumers to register themselves and make the purchase at the time allotted to them by Bevco at the outlet of their choice. The government has ruled out the proposal to allow home delivery of liquor for now.
Congress slams move
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which had made total prohibition in a phased manner its election platform in 2016, slammed the move.
Leader of the Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, accused the government of having, at a stroke, dismantled the State’s monopoly of liquor retail, to help the bar lobby.
The move reeked of high-level political corruption. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) had traded off government control over liquor sale for the substantial backhander payments promised by bar hotel owners. The coalition wanted to fill its coffers in the run-up to the local body and State elections, he said.
