CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) continues to face challenges in scaling up its liquor bottle buy-back scheme across the state, despite piloting it successfully in a few districts, including hill stations.
The scheme was launched more than a year ago in 432 Tasmac retail outlets in The Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Perambalur, Dindigul, Dharmapuri, and a few other districts, to prevent irresponsible disposal of empty bottles on agricultural land and water bodies. However, practical issues like limited manpower and difficulties in handling, storing, and managing the bottles have hindered further expansion of the scheme.
Tasmac had floated tenders and received bids in this regard to implement the scheme in the remaining districts last year. The bids are yet to be finalised.
“According to the scheme, customers must pay an extra `10 per bottle, which is reimbursed when the bottle is returned. However, even in urban areas, Tasmac outlets lacked adequate space to store the bottles. Moreover, it is difficult to get rental space for Tasmac as many landlords hesitate to give it to a liquor outlet,” a senior Tasmac official told TNIE.
The official also highlighted that a sizeable number of the consumers fail to make use of the reimbursement option. Despite challenges, the corporation has to implement the scheme across the state before July this year since the Madras High Court has mandated it to do so. “Steps are being taken in this regard,” he added.
Since its launch, the corporation has generated a surplus revenue of around Rs 2 crore through the scheme. This money will be used to rent spaces to store empty bottles, the official said.
Moreover, many bars, especially in rural areas, lack proper facilities to store empty bottles, said a Tasmac outlet supervisor. “Out of 4,800 retail outlets, 3,000 have bars. It is difficult to store the empty bottles there.”
He added that currently each Tasmac outlet operates with a supervisor and a couple of salesmen. “The workforce in each outlet is just enough to manage liquor sales. It will be difficult for them to handle the bottle buy back scheme as well,” he said. He suggested that Tasmac can consider outsourcing the scheme’s implementation.