BS Yediyurappa got the Karnataka mandate, but it is VS Achuthananadan, his southern neighbour, who has walked away with champagne in his exchequer. Karnataka polls have inadvertently perked up Kerala’s Indian Made Foreign Liqour (IMFL) kitty by a neat 21%, reveal trends in liqour sales.
Kerala’s state-run monopoly bootlegger Beverages Corporation has logged unprecedented sales in the last two months. Beating its own Onam, Christmas-New Year seasonal sales, the Corporation sold Rs 783 crore worth liqour (30.6 IMFL cases and 14.3 beer cases) in two months. In May alone, the turnover crossed Rs 400 crore. In the corresponding month in the previous year, this was just about Rs 300 crore.
Out of the boozer’s spend of Rs 3,669 crore in 2007-2008, the Kerala government had earned as much as Rs 2,914 crore. This time, the state’s dividend entitlement from the Corporation in the two-month period alone is up by 21%.
Excise officials attribute the IMFL sales spurt to the extra vigil at the Kerala-Karnataka borders that made the usual illicit inflow of spirit to Kerala. A couple of recent hooch tragedies in Central Kerala, where illicit liqour trade masqueraded as Ayurveda arista formulations, also gave a jolt to the habitual boozer circuit, probably triggering a mass-exodus to the expensive IMFL counters.
Sadly enough, daily-wagers from Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and southern states too have added to the IMFL sales high. A closer look at the sales shows that Perumbavoor, Chalakkudy and Angamaly outlets figure as the star retail-spots. These are also the area, which has the highest spread of immigrant labour, employed in construction jobs in Kerala. “Daily-wagers are among the biggest consumers of rum,” says Sanker Reddy, MD, Kerala State Beverages Corporation.
Contrary to rest of India, where whisky sales lead, in Kerala, rum is the favourite. Out of the sales, roughly 65% is rum, 33% brandy and about 2% whisky, vodka, gin and other white beverages. Majestic XXX, Contessa XXX, Columbia XXX, Old Port, McDowell Old Cask, Royal Army XXX, Empee’s Sixer XXX, Old Mariner’s XXX and Old Admiral VSOP are the fast-moving rum brands.
Not everybody is as buoyed by the sales record as Kerala government or the IMFL guzzler. Bishops, irked at LDF government on various issues from atheism in curriculam to payment-seats in colleges, are worried about the social fallout. At least 10 million are daily tipplers, opine Paul Karachira, secretary-general, a bishop-level panel on temperance.
And most are unorganised workers, who form LDF’s vote-bank. But, for Kerala government fighting a huge revenue deficit, any revenue inflow – smacking rum from Karnataka distilleries or saffron politics – has emerged a champagne it cannot afford to brush aside.
