There is a court directive in 1999 that licences should not be issued haphazardly, said General Secretary of the organisation B Govindraj Hegde at a press meet on Thursday.

According to the government stipulations, for a population of 15,000 one bar licence should be issued and for every 7,500 a retail outlet licence should be issued, he explained.

Currently the licences issued are more than these requirements, he added.

However, a provision should be made to shift the licences within district limits so that licences concentrated at one place can be shifted to places wherever there is demand, according to the memorandum.

Demands status quo
The Federation has also demanded the status quo regarding license fee be maintained this year as already there has been a 100 per cent hike in the licence fee in 2007. They have demanded the provisions of the CL-2 license (for retail store) be changed to include a provision enabling a consumer to drink liquor at the premises itself.
We have been requesting enhancement in profit margin for a long time, said Mr Hegde.

There is a 20 per cent margin on landing cost today, but on the sale price the profit is 16.6 per cent out of which 1.1 per cent goes for Deduction at Source which leaves us with only 15.5 per cent. 

“We want another five or ten per cent added,” he said.

Joint meeting sought
The Federation has asked the Governor to convene a joint meeting with the Finance Department, Budget Estimates Department, Excise Department, KSBCL and the Association members to sort out their problems.

Their other demands include making liquor above Rs 2,000 in one fourth and half cases at the packing level in distilleries, reimburse the loss on account of breakage by distilleries, insisting KSBCL adopt system of electronic funds transfer from february 2008 etc.

He also announced that a Wine Merchants’ Co operative Society will be formed by April or May to bring together all the license holders onto one platform and protect their interests.