TASMAC shops: Behind the scenes of one of Tamil Nadu government's highest revenue generators

TASMAC shops: Behind the scenes of one of Tamil Nadu government's highest revenue generators

Complaints of bottles being sold at prices higher than MRP in the outlets pour in from across the State, except those in Chennai police limits.

Published: 13th July 2020 03:48 AM 

Illustration: Tapas Ranjan

By ​T MURUGANANDHAM

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The demand for liquor is so high and impregnable in Tamil Nadu that the State may not be able to afford any anomaly in the functioning of one of its highest revenue generators -- the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC). 

But consumers across the State, except those in Chennai police limits, have complained about liquor bottles sold at TASMAC outlets being priced higher than the MRP. When enquired, the employees at several outlets said they had to bear a lot of additional expenses to manage the shops without much support from the company officials. 

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A senior TASMAC official, however, claimed that it was commonplace for employees affiliated to unions to level baseless allegations. When the government headed by the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa took over the private retail sales of liquor in the State in 2003, around 36,000 people were employed with the TASMAC. Seventeen years down the lane, the number of employees has come down to 27,000.

“None of these is a permanent employee,” claims a TASMAC worker from Dindigul. “We are all part-time contract employees. Even the supervisor, who must be a degree holder, draws a salary of Rs 12,500 per month (take home Rs 10,500). The salesmen draw Rs 10,500 per month (take homeRs 8,500), and this is after 12 salary revisions,” he added.

If running a family with this sum seems harrowing, wait till the employees list out the various aspects of running the business that require them to pay from their own pockets. Losses incurred due to irregularities in manual billing (e-billing still not introduced at these outlets), spike in electricity costs, loading-unloading charges, maintenance costs of the building and ‘handling loses’ are some of the expenses that eat into our meagre salaries, the employees said. 

The employees also alleged that they had to ‘manage higher-ups with payback’. “If we don’t pay the Revenue Inspector or the District Managers who come to inspect our outlets, they file unfavourable reports of our functioning,” a section of the employees alleged. “Compounding matters, the TASMAC administration does not have a provision for ‘handling loses’. Even biscuit manufacturers, who deal with plastic packets, keep aside an amount for ‘handling loses’; and here we are dealing with glass bottles. 

The Kerala government allows provision of handling costs, so that the liquor shop employees there are not affected,” a senior employee at a TASMAC outlet said. Employees said they were forced by circumstances to sell the bottles above the MRP. Following complaints of liquor being overpriced, TASMAC MD Kirlosh Kumar had sent a circular to all district-level personnel to conduct surprise checks and audit the shops to prevent malpractices.

Reacting to the allegations, a top official from the corporation said that it is a common practice for employees’ unions to raise such baseless claims. However, he added, the administration is mulling steps to curb sales of liquor at prices above MRP. “The government views the above-MRP sales as a grave issue. We are planning to install CCTV cameras in all TASMAC shops. Work orders have already been issued for this,” the official said.

A TASMAC employee from Virudhunagar said, “Even after 16 years of existence, there is no computerised billing system in the TASMAC shops. We only give manually written Bill. This is the basis for irregularities. There is no need for submitting a Physical Verification Report every month if the entire system is computerised. Why can’t the government do this ?” Talking about modernising the outlets, the official said, “Tenders will soon be floated for installing computerised billing system. 

We have also fixed fire extinguishers at the outlets, and are expediting the installation of ‘big cash chests’ to prevent burglaries at the outlet.” Similarly, no TASMAC shop is in a government building. These shops are in buildings owned by those who had run private liquor shops before the launching of the TASMAC. In Tamil Nadu, they get the shops through the employees and fix the rent later through a committee. The government allows a 10 per cent hike in rent once in a while. Most of the time, the increase in the rent is borne by the employees, the employee added. But the TASMAC official said the PWD gives a rent assessment certificate for all shops and the administration pays the rent.