COIMBATORE: With Tasmac yet to find a way to dispose off liquor bottles returned by customers under the buy back scheme, empty bottles are piling up in retail outlets that already function out of small spaces. Following a High Court order, Tasmac has been implementing the buyback scheme at all the 305 shops in the district on a pilot basis from April 1. As per the initiative, Tasmac outlets will charge `10 above the MRP of a bottle and refund it when customers return the empty bottle.
The returned bottles have not been collected from the shops as Tasmac is yet to finalise a contractor which forces employees to keep them in safe custody. Since the shops have no room, sales persons leave the bottle in sacks and boxes outside the shops after removing the hologram from them.
“Already there is shortage of space in outlets. In the last ten days, empty bottles were not collected from shops. We have no option but to keep them outside the shops. We were told that after finishing the tender process, bottles will be taken away. However, officials have not set any deadline for this,” said R Ganesan, sales man of a shop in Coimbatore.
A John, member of the Tasmac Employee Union said, “Before implementing the system, the management should have made arrangements to collect bottles. Now employees are struggling to keep returned bottles.”
A senior official from Tasmac said the tender process has started and soon a contractor would be finalised to collect the bottles. He said the process would start on April 18.