PUDUCHERRY: After two decades, the Puducherry government has decided to grant fresh licences for establishing blending and bottling units (BBU) of India-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the Union Territory. The Puducherry Excise Department (ED) has invited applications, saying licences will be granted for “augmentation and employment generation”. No deadline to apply has been mentioned.
However, there are restrictions. “A minimum experience of five years in the field of operation of distillery or blending and bottling plant for production of liquor anywhere in the country is required and he should have manufactured a minimum volume of 3 lakh cases per year for the last three years,” said a circular issued by T Sudhakar, deputy commissioner (excise), on May 18.
Liquor merchants in Puducherry refuted the idea that the move would generate additional excise revenue and employment, and said it would instead further deplete groundwater. “The size of the market will remain the same as sales are based on tourism,” a merchant asserted.
Moreover, the demand is such that even the existing distilleries aren’t functioning at their full production capacity, he added. “Puducherry’s five BBUs can produce 85 lakh cases per annum, but sales are just about 30 lakh cases annually,” said the liquor merchant.
‘The move will affect groundwater table’
Sources in a distillery pointed out the move would affect the groundwater table. “Four litres of alcohol and five litres of treated water are needed to make one case (9 bulk litres). It takes 15 litres of water to produce five litres of treated water from a demineralising plant and RO plant,” said one such source, adding that the water quality in Puducherry has already deteriorated, with TDS levels in the range of 3,000-4,000.
The norms to get a new BBU licence say the applicant’s annual turnover must be at least Rs 100 crore, and net worth should be a minimum of Rs 50 crore. At least four acres of land must be available to set up a blending and bottling unit, and the applicant should provide a detailed project report (DPR) including information on the premises and permanent apparatus, building plan, water-treatment plants, capital to be invested, approximate production capacity, and employment to be generated. They must also file income tax returns for the last three years and should not have criminal antecedents or be blacklisted by any government agencies in India.
Eligible applicants will get in-principle approval to set up BBUs, and the plants are to be commissioned after getting clearances from the departments concerned, and installation of infrastructure as per the DPR within a year.
With the circular, the government seems to have deviated from its industrial policy against chemical and water-intensive industries. Puducherry already has more distilleries than Tamil Nadu. Of the Union Territory’s five BBUs manufacturing IMFL, the oldest is Vimbrose I, established in 1942, followed by Khodays, in 1968, and Coastal Distillery (now Balaji Distilleries), in 1980. Subsequently, the Puducherry government issued licences to Vimbrose II and Ravi Kumar Distillery in 1999, Deekay Exports in 2001-2002, and Premier Distilleries in 2003.
Though Vijay Alcohol, which was established in 1989, has a licence, it is not in operation. As for the government sector, Pondicherry Distilleries has been shut since 1999-2000.
Since then, successive governments have not issued licences for new BBUs. More than a decade back, 40-50 people applied to the Department of Industries to establish BBUs employing 100 people, but permission was not granted. The department filed an affidavit in the high court saying it would not give any more licenses as a policy matter.