THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Excise Minister K. Babu on Monday reiterated the government’s commitment to go ahead with phased prohibition and questioned the sincerity of the Opposition’s protest when the LDF leaders had publicly welcomed the policy.
He told the Assembly in a written reply that liquor sales had gone up on Saturdays as Sundays are dry. The Bevco outlets on NH stretch would be shut down in a phased manner, he said.
Mr Babu defended the liquor policy saying that it had helped to bring down consumption and added that the state was committed to protecting the toddy sector as well.
The government had not suffered even one percent financial loss due to the liquor policy thanks to alternative measures like hiking the taxes. Liquor sales on Saturdays had increased by 40 percent in all the Bevco outlets, he told chief whip P. C. George. Bevco’s Saturday sales were averaging Rs 34 crore.
“While the rate of increase in consumption was 16 percent during 2010-11, it came down to one percent during 2011-12, -4 percent during 2013-14 and -6 percent up to the period of October 2014-15,” said Mr Babu.
Due to the additional tax on liquor, the government's revenue had gone up. During April - October (2013-14), Bevco sold liquor worth Rs 5,378.56 crore.
During the current fiscal in the same period, Bevco mobilised Rs 5,731.47 crore. However, the government’s income from the sales stood at Rs 4,386.16 crore and Rs 4,648.41 crore respectively for the two periods.
Since there were reports that the liquor policy had hit tourism in the state, the government was assessing the situation. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Bevco will donate computers and white cane to visually challenged students.
During 2016-17, anti-liquor awareness would be made part of the school curriculum in all the classes.
While classes two, four, six and eight would have awareness modules on the evils of alcohol in 2015-16, classes nine and ten would have it during the 2016-17 academic year.
Currently, classes one, three, five and seven are learning the module on the evils of alcohol.
“Anti-liquor clubs will be formed in all the colleges this year itself. Already 165 colleges in the state and another 1,298 schools have anti-liquor clubs,” said Mr Babu.
