To begin with, the number of retail wine shops will be reduced by 20% from the coming excise year.
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will implement his election promise of total prohibition in the state in a staggered manner. To begin with, the total number of retail wine shops will be reduced by around 20% from the coming excise year, which commences on 1 October. Importantly, the government-run AP Beverages Corporation (APBC) will take over the retail trade of liquor.
Presently, the retail liquor trade is in the hands of private persons who bag the shops in open bidding by paying the highest licence fee. Now, there are 4,330 wine shops in Andhra Pradesh. But, as per the new excise policy announced by the AP Revenue special chief secretary D. Sambasiva Rao on Friday night, the shops will be reduced to 3,500 for the 2019-20 excise year.
This way, the government hinted at cutting down wine shops 20% every year and implement total prohibition at the end of five years of its term. Corresponding reduction will also be announced for bars and restaurants too soon, officials said. However, the government has decided to exempt five-star hotels from the prohibition policy. According to the orders issued by the government, liquor shops will be open from 10 am to 9 pm, as against the current timings of 10 am to 10 pm, a cut by one hour. The APBC will run the 3,500 shops on its own with staff hired from the local youth. Each shop will be run by five staff in cities and four in rural areas. A total 15,000 youth will get jobs in these shops.
These shops will be headed by a sales supervisor with B.Com degree and with a monthly salary of Rs 17,500, while his assistants with intermediate qualification will be paid Rs 15,000 per month. They will be held responsible for any violations in sales and losses too. All liquor retail shops will be fitted with CCTV cameras. However, there is no clarity on who will recruit the staff from the locals.
The government has finalised this liquor policy after studying the same in other states, especially in Kerala where the government walks a tight-rope by managing the shops through a state-run agency while seeing that there was no inconvenience to the public.
However, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to go the extra mile and do away with the liquor shops over a period of five years, one of his main election promises. The significant point of this new liquor policy is abolition of belt-shops across the state. Belt shops are unauthorised outlets in villages and cities where some persons buy liquor bottles from licenced shops and sell them illegally. According to an estimate, there are around 20,000 belt-shops in Andhra and there is no control over the retail prices of liquor at these shops.
The excise department, which earns a revenue of around Rs 12,000 crore per annum through wine shops, turns a blind eye to these belt-shops as they help boost the sales targets. While the licenced wine shops have specific timings, these belt-shops have none, leading to anger among women that liquor flows like water round-the-clock in villages, ruining their families.
The previous Chandrababu Naidu government was accused of encouraging liquor sales to boost its revenues and economy in the last five years. Jagan during his “Padayatra” (walkathon) vowed to close down belt shops once he came to power and implement total prohibition in a phased manner. He said he won’t care for revenues come from liquor sales.
The Opposition TDP is wary of the new liquor policy aimed at shutting down total liquor sales. Though Opposition leaders are ready to criticise the government on this, they, in private, are voicing concerns over its implementation. Andhra Pradesh has a history of implementing total prohibition from 1995 to 1999, during the regime of the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP.
The government had to rollback its total prohibition policy after a series of instances of illicit liquor tragedies and prevalent sale of illicit liquor from neighbouring states. The government also suffered a huge financial loss to the exchequer. This time, too, similar concerns are being raised, but there is a sense of wait-and-watch among the Opposition leaders.
Sources in the government, however, told this newspaper that the Chief Minister was fully committed to make his stance towards curtaining liquor sales and very soon the excise department would launch a massive campaign against consumption of alcohol. “After all, it is the poor who are worst hit by liquor and it is our duty to wean them away from the habit,” AP Deputy CM and Excise Minister Narayana Swamy said.