NAGPUR, FEB 23: Paradoxical as it may sound, the drinking water supplied in the city appears to be potable enough for the residents, but not so for the liquor manufacturers. Majority bottling plants in the city have closed down their units and have shifted to other cities in Maharashtra, causing the revenue of State Excise to plummet by a staggering margin of more than Rs 7 crore in the last six months.It may be recalled that some distributors of well-known wine companies had held a press meeting in which they had squarely blamed the city bottling plant owners for inferior quality of liquor. They also claimed that city water was not fit for liquor-making.
Speaking to The Indian Express, K C Shelar, Superintendent of State Excise said the revenue from foreign liquor had fallen drastically following the closure of majority of bottling plants. ``Only three or four plants are presently bottling foreign liquor brands that too by reducing production capacity,'' he pointed out.
He said ``the revenuehad declined on foreign liquor brands as city alcohol lovers were preferring liquor bottled outside Nagpur. We don't know exactly what is the effect of city water in liquor manufacturing,'' he said, adding that the shifting by city bottling plants had not affected total State revenue collection. ``Majority bottlers have only closed down their Nagpur plants but have not chosen to shift outside Maharashtra and hence the State revenue has not been affected,'' Shelar informed.
Chanakya Distilleries, Vindya Distilleries, Sapana Distilleries, Nagpur Distilleries and Somrus Distilleries are prominent among those who have closed down bottling plants in Nagpur.
``We hope to offset this revenue loss through the licence fee hike by the State Government,'' he said, adding that the bottling plants agitation in protest against MRP regulation is the other reason for decline in Nagpur region revenue. ``A noticeable feature is that the number of liquor lovers in Nagpur region has gone up substantially. In 1994-95, thesale of country liquor was 54 lakh litres which soared to 150 lakh litres at the end of 1998-99. The hike in sale through country liquor is up by about 175 per cent,'' Shelar informed. The foreign liquor sale which was only 19 lakh litres in 1994-95, increased to 33 lakh litres in Nagpur region. The hike in foreign liquor sale is of about 70 per cent. The beer consumption has been increased to 36 lakh litres from 22 lakh litres.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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