After water, it's liquor row between AP, TS HYDERABAD: Sale of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) has hit a new low ever since Telangana came into being, if wine dealers are to be believed. On top of this, tipplers in the State continue to be deprived of several brands, thanks to the inter-State taxation and duties between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Wine dealers are also worried with toddy emerging as an alternative to cheap liquor in Hyderabad. Between August and November this year, the Telangana Wine Dealers Association has recorded a 30 per cent drop in sales compared to all previous years.
Brands like Bagpiper, Old Monk rum, Mc Dowell's (MC) rum and MC Brandy are not available in Telangana as the distilleries of these particular brands are located in Andhra Pradesh. For starters, there are 2,200 wine shops in TS and 6,700 in the erstwhile AP.
While 70 per cent of the IMFL manufacturers operate from Telangana, 70 per cent of sales and consumption takes place in Andhra Pradesh. 'There is excess production in Telangana whereas building up liquor manufacturing units in AP would take time. TS distilleries are not able to utilise their capacity due to the current inter-State taxation policy,' said a distillery manager wishing to remain anonymous.
'All the old stocks are over and since last one month, we have had no stock of Old Monk rum. The distillery is in Chittoor and they do not send it anymore,' said a sales boy at a wine shop in Begumpet. Explaining the situation, D Venkateswara Rao of Telangana Wine Dealers Association said, 'Certain brands are not arriving due to the taxation issues. Companies do not want to pay the export and import duty for transporting liquor from (for example) Vizag to Adilabad. That would reduce their margin of profits.'
Further, he pointed out that companies are trying to tie up with local distilleries on both sides. There are proposals to hike the prices of IMFL so as to cope with the inter-State taxation and duties. Officials from excise and prohibition department were unavailable.
Excise Minister T Padma Rao Goud earlier had said that the government expected the revenues to go up by Rs 1,000 crore in 2014-15 from last financial year's revenue of Rs 9,500 crore.
News Posted: 9 November, 2014
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