The Hindu : Wine shop owners-police cold war over `payments'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 07, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Wine shop owners-police cold war over `payments'

By S.Shivakumar

CHENNAI June 6. The introduction of bars and levy of high fees to run them has created a cold war between the wine shop owners in the city and the police personnel over ``payments'' to run them without too much supervision.

Slush money freely passing hands was among the major points taken into account by the Government while permitting bars to run officially.

However, the legalising of the bars has created a piquant situation, as some policemen are unwilling to give up the system of ``payments'' in vogue earlier.

Wine shop owners said they agreed to continue with the existing system, but with a 50 per cent cut, but some inspectors want the existing `mamool' to continue or they would not allow sales after the stipulated timings.

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, had stated in the Assembly that bars were being legalised to ensure that the money which was going as mamool during the earlier DMK regime for allowing illegal bars would now accrue to the State exchequer.

A member of a wine merchants association said that members of the trade paid Rs.5,000 each to the local police station and a similar sum to the Prohibition Enforcement Personnel per month before bars were legalised. Now with bars being legalised, apart from a caution deposit of Rs.50,000, the bar licence fee has been fixed as Rs.three lakhs for one year. As licences are to be renewed from August, they have now paid Rs.75,000 for three months.

A wine shop owner wanted the government not to give effect to the annual increase in the licencing fee by 15 per cent. They want the government to collect the existing shop licence fee of Rs.14 lakhs along with the bar fee of Rs.three lakhs. Each wine shop owner would save Rs.2.10 lakhs in such an event.

With the Government ready to listen, the wine shops have put forth a list of demands. They say that while the licencing fee has increased from Rs.1.25 lakhs in 1989 to Rs.14 lakhs now, their profit margin remained at 20 per cent, despite the increase in workers salary and electricity tariff. Even the sales tax had increased from 20 per cent to 55 per cent. They also wanted the government to increase the profit margin from 20 to 30 per cent for liquor and 35 per cent for beer as it had to be refrigerated.

Ironically, wine shop owners point out that while they are forced to take a minimum offtake from TASMAC and they generate revenue for the government, the local police personnel continue to pose problems.

It is learnt that in working class areas like Koyambedu, where the day starts very early wine shop owners tend to open their shops earlier than the scheduled time, while most shops close around midnight about an hour after the prescribed time.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer said that clear instructions had been given to police personnel not to interfere with wine shops. If there were any specific complaints stern action would be taken against the erring police personnel.

Wine shop owners for their part often make extra money by selling unexcised liquor, or fake varieties. The lack of maximum retail price enforcement means liquor prices are arbitrarily fixed. Loose sales also add to profits.

``With bars legalised there is no need for wine shop owners to hold talks with the police'', the officer added.

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