The government also submitted that at present 40 percent of beer consumed here and 8 percent of foreign liquor comes from outside the state.
Kochi: The State Government on Wednesday informed the Kerala High Court that the permission given for the three new breweries and two distilleries is not final but in order to protect the interests of the state such measures needed to be taken. The government submitted this when the petition by George Vattukulam, state president of Malayala Vedi, Thrissur, against sanctioning of the breweries and distilleries came up for hearing.
The KFL rules stipulate that the applications for starting compounding, blending and bottling units related to foreign liquor should be submitted to the Excise Commissioner. Then on the recommendation of the Excise Commissioner the government will give advance sanction. For the final sanction, a lot of issues have to be studied. The issues including availability of water come in this phase. The government has not decided to sanction distilleries and breweries. If applications are submitted, then the government will study them and action will be taken.
The government also submitted that at present 40 percent of beer consumed here and 8 percent of foreign liquor comes from outside the state. If this too is made inside the state, the state will benefit from that in the form of more jobs and tax revenue. It also pointed out that of the three breweries sanctioned now, one is in the public sector. After hearing these arguments, the court put off the case for three weeks. The court also asked the government to give further explanation on the petition.
