Centre says no to reopening liquor sales

Hyderabad: Sale of liquor is unlikely in near future in the country as the Central government thinks that it would aggravate the Covid crisis. This has been conveyed to the states at a videoconference Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba had with states’ chief secretaries and director generals of police (DGPs) on Saturday.

This videoconference is a weekly routine after the countrywide lockdown was imposed from 24 March and its inputs would be used for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s audiovisual interaction with the chief ministers on Monday on deciding the next course of action to contain the Covid spread in the coming days.

Several states, including Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, have asked for allowing them to open liquor retail shops so that people are not put to hardships. Some other states haven’t made an open demand, but were waiting for a green light from the Centre to resume liquor sales shut from 22 March.

However, the Cabinet Secretary, according to sources in the Telangana government, made it clear that it was neither advisable nor possible to reopen liquor sales as it would create many new problems. Gauba is learnt to have explained to the chief secretaries and DGPs that sale of liquor would not only harm the immunity of regular consumers, but also mess up the lockdown norms like social distancing.

The states which had asked for opening liquor shops are driven by two major problems. One is the falling revenues on account of closing liquor shops. For most states, excise duty from liquor sale is a major revenue source. For example, Telangana gets annual revenue of around Rs 25,000 crore, from all sorts of shops—retail and bars and pubs. Same is the case with Andhra Pradesh too.

Most states find it difficult to pay salaries to their employees while some of them had cut the pay bill by 50% for March and April. As other sources of revenues like stamps and registration duties and GST have evaporated as all commercial establishments shut, liquor sale could be useful to some extent.

Another reason is mounting demand from the public that liquor is allowed at least during day time so that they need not buy it in the black market. Even now, liquor is available, but at extra prices, from 200-1,000% more. Police are detecting liquor bottles hidden in private vehicles which are meant to supply to the customers secretly.

The states are willing to ensure that social distancing is followed outside the liquor retail shops, if they were opened from 4 May. Some states like Kerala have come forward to post police force outside the shops too. But, the Centre is not willing as it doesn’t want to allow some states and not allow the others. A nationwide opening is possible only after June or July, said sources.

Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy, too, said in Hyderabad on Saturday that the Centre was not ready to allow liquor sales immediately in view of the unabated Covid cases. “We have decided not to reopen liquor shops in the interests of public as it would endanger their lives now,” he said while talking to the media.