Old wine in old bottle? Expired liquor hits shelves in Kovai ahead of Pongal
COIMBATORE: Expired liquor has likely hit the shelves of TASMAC stores in the Coimbatore region as the authorities allegedly try to clear old stock during the festival season when demand peaks.
Though TASMAC employees' unions objected, the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) has started redistribution of 20,000 cases of liquor that have been stocked in godown for the last few years.
The stock being dispatched to retail outlets since January 6 are worth Rs 16 crore, said TASMAC employee union sources.
It is alleged over 15,000 cases are being sent to 159 outlets in Coimbatore North district and 50,000 cases to 48 shops in Coimbatore South district.
It is suspected liquor stock since 2018 is being supplied to the TASMAC outlets.
Employees' unions, including the Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) — the DMK's union — raised the issue with the TASMAC administration. They demanded eliminating the old stock and stop pushing them through outlets.
Union sources claimed the old liquor stock is provided with a single bar code instead of the normal practice of one bar code for each bottle.
Sources said after employees unions threatened to submit a petition to the District Collector, the General Manager (Retail Vending) T Ramadurai Murugan dashed to Coimbatore on Saturday and held an urgent meeting with the representatives of employees' unions in the evening.
Though TASMAC trade staff expressed concern, they were reportedly instructed to sell the old stocks by the Pongal festival.
A member of the LPF said the TASMAC administration should refrain from sending old liquor to outlets as it may create issues in an election season if anything adverse happens to drinkers.
He said that some liquor companies have stopped supplying their products to Tasmac for the last few years, but those products are redistributed for sale now.
A representative of an employee union, who did not want to be named, explained how expired products likely reached the stores.
"The TASMAC implemented an 'END- TO-END' computerisation project in all liquor retail outlets across the state in April 2025 to monitor the activities from production to sale to customers. While this project was finally implemented in the Coimbatore district at the state level, non-aggregated liquor that could not be scanned from other district warehouses were transferred to the Coimbatore North and South warehouses through Inter-Depot Transfer (IDT)," he said.
Similar liquor brands from the Coimbatore North and South stores were returned to the warehouses through Customer Return Note (CRN), and liquor worth about Rs 16 cr were sent back to the godowns, he added.
"The colour of the expired products has changed and they appear pale as they had been stored in various warehouses for several months. If these are sent back to the outlets, it may pose problems for customers and store employees," he added.
Despite repeated attempts, Ramadurai Murugan, GM (Retail Vending), was not available for comment.
Speaking to TNIE, Minister for Prohibition and Excise S Muthusamy aid that he is not aware of the redistribution of old stocks to retail. "Old liquor stocks should not be dispatched to outlets. I will look into the matter," he said.