HYDERABAD: The growing thirst for premium foreign liquor in the city is encouraging illegal business wherein bootleggers are conniving with frequent foreign flyers, travellers and travel agents to get duty-free liquor from airports, which is later being sold illegally at a higher price to foreign liquor connoisseurs in the city.
The officials of the Excise Department are worried over this trend, claiming that the illegal business is denting their coffers. In the last one month, the Prohibition and Excise Department officials have busted three groups involved in such illegal trade of imported liquor in the city.
According to reports, since the start of this year, the Excise Department officials have seized around 250 bottles of imported premium liquor in the city. On January 30, more than 170 bottles of premium foreign liquor worth `18 lakh being sold illegally in the city was seized from a travel agent.More cases this year
The department that used to bust only around 10 such cases in a year earlier has busted three such cases in just over a month this year.
Most of the finer labels come from Malaysia
“This is causing a huge loss to the State exchequer. A bottle which one would buy at a duty-free store is being sold by illegal traders in the city for more than two or three times the price, depending on the amount a buyer is ready to pay,” said an official of the Prohibition and Excise Department.“The rumrunners are bringing in expensive liquor brands like Johnnie Walker, Blue Label or Royal Salute through foreign travellers and are selling them at a higher price to connoisseurs. If this continues, it will cause loss to the exchequer. It would be helpful if the proposal, for reducing the number of foreign liquor bottles that one can buy from the duty-free shops from two to one, gets the green signal,” the official said. The excise official added that most such flyers who bring in foreign liquor to the city are flying in from Malaysia.
City in high spirits
In the last one month, the Prohibition and Excise Department officials have busted three groups involved in illegal sale of imported liquor in the city which has led to the State facing huge losses