Petrol and tomato are more expensive than beer in Goa

Petrol and tomato are more expensive than beer in Goa

Newton.Sequeira@timesgroup.com

Panaji:12.12.2021

Tomatoes are making many Goans cry into their beer this past week. Unseasonal rain pushed through the roof the price of this vegetable, but alcohol prices in Goa have remained largely stable, allowing tipplers to savour the delicious irony of gold being lighter on the wallet than red.

While the popular Goa Kings pilsner retails at ₹60, a kg of tomatoes is competing with petrol—at around ₹100/ kg. It is true some tomatoes are available for around ₹70/ kg (still costlier than a pint of Kings), but these are, according to an angry shopper, “positively hopeless and not worth buying”.

While tomatoes disappear from chilli fry and omelettes, some families are purchasing the red fruit in lesser quantities, hoping its price will stabilise soon. For those with deeper pockets, shelling out a crisp ₹100 note for a kg of tomatoes is the new normal.

It’s not just the local beers that the tomato has beaten hollow. Even 750ml of Kingfisher or Tuborg, at ₹85 a bottle, is cheaper than a kilo of the kitchen staple. Fuel prices have also been on a high, with petrol and diesel retailing at ₹96 and ₹87 a litre each.

Goa has among the lowest alcohol taxes in the country, resulting in cheap booze. But it depends on its neighbours for vegetables, sourcing around 150 tonne of tomatoes every day from Hubbali and Belagavi in Karnataka.