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 According to a News Report the sale of wine went up by 70% in December over November 2015, which says that the figures released by the Government-run Kerala State Beverages Corporation (BEVCO) which has the monopoly on the sale of alcoholic beverages in the God’s country’, there was a
general spurt in its liquor sales during Christmas and New Year season last month. Even beer witnessed an increase of 36%.
According to the statistics released by Bevco for the December sales, wine sales reportedly shot up by 70.9 percent. In November, it had sold 9,762 cases (9-liters) of wine. It went up to 16,684 cases during December. Beer sales also saw a big increase in December compared to that in November. Sales went up from 897,000 cases in November to 1.22 million cases in December, an increase of 36.15 per cent.
The decision of the UDF government to allow the bars shut down due to prohibition, to be transformed into wine and beer parlours smelt like roses for the wine and beer producers. Understandably, many of the tipplers are shifting gears to drink softer alcohols. The past one year has seen a massive increase in wine and sales. Wine sales shot up to about 132% whereas beer sales saw an upswing of around 96%, according to New Indian Express.
Where there are roses there are thorns too. Several anti-alcohol organisations including Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (India Chapter), have proved to be the proverbial thorns as they raised concerns regarding the government policy to promote wine and beer. They are protesting against the sale of wine and beer too.
As was widely anticipated at the time of announcing Prohibition Policy, the UDF controlled Government in Kerala had allowed converting 418 bars closed since April into beer and wine parlours last year. At that time, the order had been silent about wine and beer bars. For details of the prohibition order, visit
Closed Kerala Bars allowed as Wine Parlours
Recently Supreme Court had turned down the plea of 4-star restaurants to be treated at par with 5-star cousins and be allowed the sale of liquor. The order is expected to be a further boon for wine and beer and a good step towards delineating the two categories from liquor. |