Visakhapatnam: When spirit ran high this Dasara season, it was not just the winebibbers but also neo-boozers who gulped down liquor and beers worth over Rs 70 crore in just one week in Vizag and the excise department earned good revenue during the festive season as the sales reached feverish pitch in the week. Keeping the demand for spirit, a few shops in the city charged Rs 50 over and above the MRP and even a few bars have jacked up prices in the week.
Visakhapatnam excise superintendent P. Ramachandra Rao said that there are around 402 liquor shops and 126 bars and restaurants in Vizag district, including city has around 94 bars and 56 wine shops and all shops together sell around three lakh boxes of liquor (whisky, brandy, rum, vodka and a few others) and around 3.2 lakh boxes of beers in a month.
But, this Dasara season (September 25 to October 5) has seen liquor sales sharp climb as all shops and bars together sold more than Rs 70 crore worth liquor and beer.
The sales started climbing from September 30 and many winebibbers stored the spirit citing October 2, which is a dry day due to Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti and the sales almost jumped by three times on October 3, on the day of Dasara and the bumper sales continued till Sunday.
Long queues were seen in front of some liquor shops on the Day of Dasara and many liquor shops, which had a daily counter sale of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh saw a rise of almost 50 per cent during the festive season, a spirit businessmen said on condition of anonymity.
Sources said that initially the spirit businessmen were worried that their business may witness sharp fall during Dasara Navaratri. But, the business is quite lucrative during the festive season.
Dasara is a festival of mamools. So a majority of the people have collected mamools and consumed spirit. With the temperature still making life miserable, Vizagites hunted for cool refreshment and boosted the sales of beers.
