Chennai: Tipplers crowded the Tasmac shops more than usual while celebrating Deepavali this year, as expected. The sales during Deepavali day (October 27) was a hefty Rs.172 crore while Tasmac collection on the previous day was even higher at Rs.183 crore. Tasmac earned Rs.100 crore on October 25, thereby making a total of Rs.455 crore during the Deepavli weekend. This was Rs.37 crore more than the sales last Deepavali when liquor to the tune of Rs.180 crore was sold on Deepavali day and Rs.148 crore the previous day, according to Tasmac sources.
"You can understand the rush on Deepavali eve and on the festival day if you note the sales were a mere Rs.100 crore on October 25; and the sales almost doubled the next day at Rs.183 crore", said a Tasmac official. He explained this jump saying that the tipplers stocked up in the southern districts of Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Sivagangai on Oct 26 since the following day was a holiday for the liquor shops in view of the Alagamuthu Kone Day and the Pasumpon Thevar Jayanti.
As usual, the favourite among the tipplers in Tamil Nadu remained brandy "because it does not cost too much, and it satisfies", said a 'connoisseur' who did not wish to be named. 'Satisfaction' invariably means 'extra-kick' without a hefty bill.
"Yes, it's true that brandy remains the favourite, accounting for about 85 per cent of the total sale on any day. It only gets hotter on the counter at festival time rush", said the Tasmac official. And of the brandy sale, about 78-80 per cent gets picked up as 'quarters', that is bottles of 180 ml. The cost of a 'quarter' varies from Rs.100 for the 'ordinary' brand to Rs.110 for 'medium' and Rs.130-600 for the 'premium' varities.
"It's a usual sight to find some of our kudimagans (tipplers) wait outside the Tasmac shops with just 50-60 rupees and negotiate with a similarly placed person for a 'cutting', which means pooling their resources to buy one 'quarter' bottle and sharing it", said the Tasmac official, adding that the population of such compulsive drinkers has been growing at an alarming rate over the years in Tamil Nadu. "Our salesmen often drive away the under-age boys from the counters, but they manage to procure their needs through brokers at a commission".
Several social activists and left outfits have been agitating over years against Tasmac's "expansionism" as evidenced by the government setting increased sales targets for every celebrating festival-mainly New Year, Pongal and Deepavali -and the Tasmac sure achieving them. This Deepavli time too, the government had reportedly set a target of Rs.385 crore during the three festival days, Oct 25-27, whereas the Tasmac delivered Rs.455 crore.
"We could have sold more but the holiday on Deepavali, Oct 27, in the high-consuming districts of Madurai, Ramnad and Sivagangai on account of Alagumuthu Kone Day and Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar Jayanthi dipped the collections to some extent, though our customers stocked up the previous day", said a Tasmac official. For obvious reasons, he wished to remain unanimous.
Like most other past festival-time protests, the 'All-India Democratic Women's Association' (AIDWA) had slammed the state government this time too for setting Tasmac its usual, hefty Deepavali target. "It is condemnable that the government has set a target of Rs.385 crore for Tasmac during this festival time, despite the hard fact that several families have gone below the poverty line due to the economy downslide. Besides, the number of fatalities among the youth has been going up due to the Tasmac shops and road accidents", said an AIDWA statement.
It would not require great arithmetic skills to add up the Tasmac figures of the three days, Oct 25-27, to flaunt the happy-high figure of Rs.70 crore as the excess-over-target; besides the 'official excuse' that it could have been much higher if only Deepavali did not coincide with the Sunday holiday down south.
"This is just too sad, tragic. While the alcoholics get deeper into the pit, the government makes its Tasmac money at the cost of their emaciated families. And we call ourselves a Welfare State", rued AIDWA general secretary P Suganthi. She also pointed to the mushroom growth of Tasmac shops, despite the Supreme Court orders regulating their growth, and pointed out that in some places one liquor outlet is barely a few metres away from the other -for instance on the canal bank road adjacent to the Mylapore MRTS station.
