Premium liquor manufacturers seek level-playing field in Delhi, pin hopes on new govt

New Delhi: Domestic manufacturers of premium liquor, competing against imported brands in Delhi, hope that the new government will provide a level-playing field, opening gates to the availability of the choicest of local spirits in the capital.

With a new government in place in Delhi, liquor connoisseurs are hoping that they will once again be able to taste finest Indian alcoholic beverages like domestically-produced single-malt whiskies, wines and gins among others, liquor industry experts said.

Under the current excise policy, the high brand-licence fee has forced Indian alcoholic beverage makers to stay out of the Delhi market, they claimed.

"The Delhi excise policy favours imported alcoholic beverage brands. Today, it is prohibitively expensive and impractical to introduce domestic brands in Delhi, especially the premium Indian ones, which have low sales volumes," said Anant Iyer, director general of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies.

"We have been repeatedly urging the Delhi government to allow us a level-playing field. We want a healthy competition to prevail in the market. Let the government allow same brand-licence fee on domestic alcoholic beverages, which has been granted to the imported brands," Iyer said.

This also suits the "Make in India" and "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" visions and to make it happen, it is imperative that the government stands by the domestic alcoholic beverage industry, which supports 50 lakh farmers, employs 20 lakh workers and pays Rs 3 lakh crore to it in taxes, he added.

According to industry experts, low volumes do not justify a high brand-registration cost as a large number of high-end products, such as Indian single-malt whiskies, wines and gins, are not available in the national capital.

As a result, consumers in Delhi are unable to buy premium Indian brands and forced to go to neighbouring states to get those, leading to loss of revenue for the Delhi government, the industry experts said.

They said according to the prevailing excise policy, all Indian whiskies have to pay a brand-licence fee of Rs 25 lakh for each product to sell in Delhi. But all imported products (referred to as BIO or Bottled in Origin) are charged a licence fee of Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh only for each imported brand.

According to the current excise policy, the brand-licence fee for Indian whiskies is Rs 25 lakh per brand and Rs 12 lakh per brand for rum, gin and vodka.

The Indian brandy licence fee is Rs 8 lakh and for beer, it is Rs 15 lakh per brand.

Comparatively, the licence fee for imported liquor is Rs 15 lakh for five brands of whisky, rum, gin, vodka and brandy, and Rs 50,000 per additional brand.

The licence fee for imported wine and liqueur brands is Rs 7 lakh for 10 brands and Rs 50,000 per additional brand, they added.