ANDHRA SLASHES LIQUOR PRICES, CITES INCREASE IN SMUGGLING

The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday cut down the price of Indian Made Foreign Liquor in the medium and premium categories by at least 25 to 30 per cent, citing instances of ‘’smuggling’’ from outside the state and consumption of sanitisers by some.

It had in May enforced a 75 per cent price hike to ‘’discourage’’ people from consumption and safeguard health. However, this move failed to achieve the desired results and in the contrary created a new menace in the form of smuggling.

The government had on Monday issued an order prohibiting transport of liquor from other states into its territory without payment of excise duty in a bid to check loss of revenue.

The State Government has said that it is still committed to complete liquor ban in a phased manner. “Several proactive steps have been taken by the Government in this direction. Notable among them are removal of 43,000 Belt shops spread across various villages throughout the state, dispensing with the Permit Rooms, reduction in the business hours, reduction in the maximum possession limit of intoxicants which a person can possess without licence or permit, etc.,” said the GO issued by the government.

“Further, in order to ensure that there remain no belt shops in any village, the Government removed private people from operating liquor shops”.

It said the state government has reduced the retail outlets from (4380) to (2934) i.e. by about 33% to reduce access to availability of liquor and granted exclusive privilege to APSBCL to run these retail outlets in public interest. Furthermore, the Government issued orders to reduce bars by 40% from (840) to (530) which is sub-judice. It said in order to stop illegal smuggling from other states it has reduced the prices.

The liquor prices were reduced ranging from 50 rupees to 1350 rupees depending on the cost of the bottle. The cost of beer and ready to drink bottles remain the same. There is no change in the prices upto 200 rupees liquor bottles. medium and premium rates are reduced by 25 percent from 1st November onwards.