CHENNAI: The Deepavali weekend has seen Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) selling liquor worth Rs 468 crore. With Monday declared as a government holiday, Tasmac officials said the sales would have increased further.
Last year, the liquor sales were around Rs 708 crore for three days from Friday (Deepavali day) to Sunday. This year, a total of Rs 221 crore was collected on Saturday and Rs 247 crore on Sunday. Similarly going by the trend in the previous years, Madurai region secured the top spot in sales with Rs 105 crore during the weekend, followed closely by Chennai with Rs 102 crore. Madurai collected the highest (Rs 52.75 crore) on Saturday while Tiruchy took the lead on Sunday with Rs 55.60 crore.
On November 11, Coimbatore recorded sales of Rs 40.2 crore and Rs 39.6 crore on November 12. Tiruchy recorded sales of Rs 40.02 crore on November 11 and Rs 55.6 crore on November 12. Salem recorded `39.78 crore and Rs 46.62 crore on the two days. Meanwhile, Vellore division that covers Vellore and Tirupattur districts, and Arakkonam division that covers Ranipet district recorded a total sales of Rs 9.39 crore.
Specifically, Vellore and Tirupattur contributed Rs 5.37 crore, while Ranipet district recorded sales of Rs 4.02 crore. Sources said there was a notable increase when compared to last year’s Diwali sales. Tasmac sources said they have made sure that there was enough stock of low-end and high-end varieties of liquor depending on the demand in different localities.
(With inputs from Vellore, Ranipet and Tirupattur)