MSP, not MRP, on liquor backfires

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 18

The policy shift by the Excise and Taxation Department for sale of liquor from earlier practice to display the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) to printing the Minimum Sale Price (MSP) to generate healthy competition seemed to have backfired with complaints of liquor vendors fleecing the consumers coming.

Under the new policy, there is no check on MSP and the consumers are at the receiving end. Department officers also feel that under the new policy, the MSP cannot be fixed and hope that due to competition, the prices will stabilise.

A tourist couple from Delhi Mayank and Sagarika complained that liquor vends on The Mall were selling a beer bottle for Rs 180 to 200 while the cost of beer is Rs 100.

Earlier, the vends were charging double the price for whisky but there had been reduction in prices in the past two days, said Devender, a local resident.

However, any unhealthy or unethical practice would be viewed seriously, warranting intervention, said senior department officers.

Meanwhile, liquor vends in Chamba, Kinnaur and Una districts have been allotted to the Himachal Beverages Corporation and the government will get the reserve prices as excise fee.

The sale of liquor in these three districts where auctions had failed has started and the revenue is expected to touch Rs 1,050 crore against Rs 962 crore last year, said Additional Excise Commissioner KK Sharma.