Online, takeaway liquor sale put on hold in Kerala

Appeal against embargo unlikely

20/04/2020, G. ANAND

Kerala is unlikely to appeal against the Centre’s embargo on liquor retail before the national COVID-19 lockdown ends. For now, the State government has put on hold the proposal to buy liquor from bars as takeaways and permit consumers to purchase alcohol from State-run outlets by ordering online.

With social distancing measures likely to be in place well beyond May 3, the government might also introduce limitations on the on-premise retail and consumption of alcohol.

Officials said the non-availability of legal alcohol has spawned black markets and illicit supply chains centred around shuttered bar hotels.

On Sunday, law enforcers booked bar hotels in Thrissur, Ernakulam and Idukki for retailing liquor in bulk to black marketeers. In Idukki, they found the bar management had sold a black marketeer hundreds of bottles after removing the seal of the Excise Commissioner to mask the provenance of the hoard. The cases detected so far were just the tip of the iceberg, sources said.

The Excise Department had not enumerated and sealed liquor stocks in bars after the announcement of the lockdown on March 21. It has now begun the process. The emergence of domestically distilled hooch as a substitute for legal liquor is worrying enforcers. Officials said commercial level distillation of hooch has resurged in several localities.