MCOCA against ferrying liquor from Goa to Maharashtra will kill trade: Traders

Maharashtra government’s proposed decision to apply the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on persons caught “illegally carrying alcohol”, while crossing into Maharashtra after a vacation in Goa has left liquor traders in Goa poleaxed.

On Monday, Maharashtra’s excise minister Shambhuraj Desai had directed police and excise officials posted in the border districts of Kolhapur and Sindhudurg to crackdown on persons smuggling liquor bottles into Maharashtra.

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“I have asked superintendents of the excise departments to draft a proposal to slap MCOCA against a person or gang found to be repeatedly involved in illegal sale of liquor and send it to the excise commissioner,” Desai had told reporters in Maharashtra’s Satara district.

President of the Goa Liquor Traders Association Dattaprasad Naik, however, said that Desai’s comment could have an adverse impact on the liquor trade in the coastal state. According to Naik, if the proposal is seen through by the Maharashtra government, it would ravage the coastal state’s liquor manufacturing and retail industry.

“If Maharashtra government arrests people for buying liquor bottles in Goa and taking them back to Maharashtra and books cases against them, it will spread on social media and later nobody will take the risk to purchase liquor from Goa,” Naik said.

Licensed bars and restaurants are integral to Goa’s tourist profile, especially because of the liberal excise regime in the coastal state, which facilitates lower prices of alcohol as compared to the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

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While regular tourists ferrying some hard liquor bottles back to their home states of Maharashtra and Karnataka isn’t rare, alcohol’s cheaper rates in Goa also spawned several bootlegging cartels with inter-state operations.

With this in mind, Naik demanded that the Goa government formally take up the issue with its counterparts in Maharashtra and address the escalation.

“Goa government should take the issue with Maharashtra. Government issues liquor permits to visitors; hence it has to ensure that these permits are honoured in neighbouring states or they should stop issuing such permits,” he said.

Naik referred to licensed permits issued by the government which are sold to tourists, which allow safe passage of the purchased liquor to the union territories of Daman, Diu and the state of Odisha.

Excise officials however claim that these permits are intended for legitimate travellers who are enroute to the three destinations, and not for residents of other states. Each permit, which is sold with two bottles of alcohol, costs Rs 20.