CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) on Friday informed the Madras High Court that it has proposed to include the `10 per bottle refundable deposit under the empty bottle buyback scheme with the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of the liquors. Also, the proposal for amending the VAT Act and the Rules is under consideration of the government.
The submission was made in a status report filed by K Nanthakumar, managing director of Tasmac, through Advocate General Vijay Narayan before the special bench for forest-related cases comprising justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy.
The MD further stated that the associations of Indian-Made Foreign Spirits (IMFS) and beer manufacturers have in principle agreed to undertake the responsibility for the collection of empty bottles by deploying their personnel using the technology prescribed by Tasmac.
The retail liquor selling corporation said it has been taking earnest steps for formulating and implementing a revised buyback scheme and has examined the feasibility of restructuring the existing mechanism pursuant to the legal opinion given by the Advocate General.
“It has been proposed that instead of collecting the refundable deposit of `10 separately from the consumers, the said amount be included in the MRP of each liquor bottle,” the MD said in the report.
Moreover, he said it has also been proposed to assign responsibility for the collection, transportation, recycling and environmentally sound disposal of empty liquor bottles to the respective manufacturers through a QR code-based tracking mechanism.
In furtherance of the above proposal, Tasmac on June 18, 2026, requested the Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise to initiate the necessary amendments to the relevant provisions of the TN Prohibition Act, the Rules framed thereunder, and the licence conditions applicable for IMFS and beer manufacturers and suppliers.
The Commissioner of Commercial Taxes has submitted a proposal to the state for levy of an additional cess of Rs 10 as part of the MRP, and the proposal for consequential amendments to the VAT Act/Rules is under the consideration of the government, he informed the court.