16 per cent hike in income, Tasmac still money spinner for govt

Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), the monopoly agency to sell liquor in the State, currently has a total of 5,152 liquor outlets. In 2018, Tasmac had about 6,300 liquor vending shops but more than 1,000 liquor shops in the highways were closed following Apex court’s order. Despite the closure, the revenue from Tasmac did not reduce and only increased by more than Rs 4,300 crore against last year sales.

In 2017-18, the liquor sale was only Rs 26,797 crore. Accordingly, the liquor sales in 2018-19 was Rs 31,157.83 crore, which was an increase by 16.26% compared to previous year’s revenue.

A senior official from Tasmac told that about 30% of Tamil Nadu’s revenue comes from state-run liquor shops. “Since last year’s revenue was less, the government had set a target to increase the sales by at least 10%. In addition, few hundred new liquor shops were established after amending highway laws,” he added.

He said in addition to the local brands, Tasmac is also selling about 350 brands of foreign spirits, beer and wine through its 165 licensed retail outlets to increase the revenue.

He said that the revenue earned through special fee on imported liquor also crossed Rs 20 crore against previous year’s figure of just Rs 11 crore. “Due to hike of privilege fee, licence fee and application fee, an additional revenue of Rs 23.35 crore will be generated annually from this year,” he added. The official pointed out that Tasmac procures Indian made foreign spirits, beer and wine from 11 IMFL manufacturing units, seven beer producing factories and one winery unit functioning in the State.

“In order to provide more variety to consumers, Tasmac has invited offer for registration and supply of Indian made whisky, Indian made scotch whisky and domestic wines from manufacturers having their distillery and winery in other states,” Tasmac official said.