Tamil Nadu beats liquor sale target, earns ₹455 cr in three festive days

CHENNAI:THIS Diwali season, the Tamil Nadu government, enjoying an exclusive monopoly over sale of IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor), has raked in the moolah through the sale of liquor — earning ~455 crore in sales, far in excess of the target of ~385 crore, government officials who asked not to be named said.

Total sales of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC)-RUN retail outlets over three days including Deepavali, has broken a new record. While the sales in 2018 was ~325 crore, this year it was ~455 crore.

Giving the break-up, the sources said sales on October 25 was ~100 crore, on October 26, ~183 crore and on October 27, ~172 crore.

To achieve the target, the TASMAC management reportedly issued directives to employees to stock-up, open outlets on time, and not take any of the three days off.

While total sales during the corresponding Deepavali season in 2017 was ~245 crore, it was ~265 crore in 2016. During the five-day Pongal festival in January , TASMAC’S sales touched a whopping ~735 crore with the Madurai region emerging on top of the charts. In Tamil Nadu, the sale of IMFL is the exclusive monopoly of the state government which markets and runs retail outlets through TASMAC. Revenue from TASMAC helps the government bankroll its populist programmes. Last year, revenue from IMFL sale as stated in the budget was ~26,000 crore; the actual turnover clocked in at ~31,757 crore. Festivals in the state witness a 20-30% jump in liquor consumption, enhancing the revenue of the government. While consumption used to be in the range of ~70-80 crore on weekdays, it used to go up to ~100 crore on weekends. The preferred choice of drinkers in the state is brandy, accounting for 60% of the liquor sales.

TASMAC operates nearly 4600 liquor shops across the state; Chennai alone has 300 of them. The Communist Party of India (CPI) has criticised the government for fixing a sales target when the economic slowdown has dampened the festive spirit.

“Rather than addressing the issue of massive job loss and ensuring that the essentials are available to the poor under the Public Distribution System (PDS), the government is setting wrong priorities like fixing liquor sales,” party State secretary R Mutharasan said.