Gurugram: In one day, Rs 5 crore from booze sale; most stock up on beer

GURUGRAM: With all pubs and microbreweries shut in the Millennium City, tipplers queued up in high spirits on Wednesday when standalone liquor vends in the city reopened after 42 days of staying shut due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
A day later, the excise department reported liquor sales of Rs 5 crore on the first day of reopening of the outlets. And beer and India-made foreign liquor (IMFL) seemed to be the preferred choice for the residents, in terms of volume. Over 37,000 bottles of IMFL worth Rs 2.5 crore and nearly 54,500 bottles of beer worth Rs 1.1 crore were sold on Wednesday across the city.
Gurugram has around 258 liquor vends, of which 130 vends reopened on Wednesday, while the remaining are expected to start selling in the coming days. The vends along the Golf Course Road, MG Road and in new Gurugram contributed to the major chunk of the liquor sales, as per the excise department data. However, with a large number of migrant workers leaving Gurugram due to the lockdown, the city recorded marginal sales of country-made liquor.
“Beer consumption increases during summer and we also call this beer season. As expected, the maximum number of beer bottles were sold on the first day,” deputy excise and taxation commissioner Harish Dahiya told TOI.
The excise policy of Haryana is generous when it comes to allowing residents to stock alcohol and one can stock up on 25.8 litres of alcohol in one go — 4.5 litres each of country liquor, imported foreign liquor, rum, and vodka, gin or cider, 9 litres each of IMFL and wine and 7.8 litres of beer. Many purchased their full quota of beer.