Only 40% off-shops open in Kolkata after excise issues no-mask-no-booze rule

Udit Mukherjee | TNN | May 5, 2020, 10:33 IST

The liquor shops would remain open between noon and 7pm across all zones.

KOLKATA: The state excise department on Monday finally came out with a formal notification about opening of liquor off-shops throughout the state, except in containment zones in the afternoon.
Off-shops in non-containment zones in districts and in Kolkata, though, had been preparing to open from the early hours of Monday, but it had to hold back shutters till afternoon for the order. Only 40% of liquor shops in the city — out of the total 50-55 outside containment zones — were finally opened after 3pm, following the order.
A leading retailer said that the remaining would open on Tuesday. The order issued by excise commissioner has also allowed home delivery of liquor in all the zones through telephone or app to minimize footfall at shops. It has also ordered retailers not to sell more than two bottles. Besides, excise has made mask mandatory for buyers. “Sale of liquor will not be permitted to any customer not wearing mask,” the order says.
The liquor shops would remain open between noon and 7pm across all zones. Excise department has also asked retailers to deploy volunteers for maintaining the queues of customers and also directed off-shops to display the new MRPs of different brands.
Incidentally, excise had imposed additional 30% sales tax on liquor from April 9 following outbreak of Covid 19. A retailer in central Kolkata pointed out that although initially, they had been asked to open shops at noon, on Monday excise department asked them to wait for a formal notification, following law-andorder issues outside some off shops.
Out of 50-55 off-shops in Kolkata, majority are in central and south Kolkata and around five of them are in North Kolkata. A retailer from south said that it was facing a huge manpower of at his shops. “Excise is advising us to keep volunteers, but how do we get people. Most of our employees are from districts. It is impossible for them to get here. Even if we could manage to get them in the city, we would have to provide accommodation for them till public transport is in place. This is going to be a big challenge for us,” he added.
Meanwhile, all Bevco warehouses resumed operation on Monday. West Bengal has 22 Bevco warehouses and all of them were opened on Monday. Incidentally, there are 2,500 off-shops in the state. Incidentally, few state governments allowed liquor shops to open from Monday. These include Karnataka, Assam, Maharashtra and Meghalaya. Some would do it on Tuesday. West Bengal is a market of 14.1 million (1.4 crore) cases of IMFL that include whisky, rum, vodka etc and 8 million (80 lakh) cases of beer annually.