Telangana to slash price to make beer market bullish

HYDERABAD: Here is some good news for beer guzzlers in the unusually hot weather as the government has decided to reduce the prices of all beer brands to help improve falling sales.
In the next couple of days, people will be able to buy their favourite brand of beer at Rs 10 less once the old stock gets over, as authorities try to encourage drinking beer.
The liquor income was expected to be around Rs 2700 crore every month, but for the past few months, the state government is netting only Rs 2,500 crore.
Looking at the shortfall in income, the government identified that price hike was one of the reasons for the fall along with Covid- 19 fears.
“After the old stock with old price is exhausted, the new price will come into force. Already instructions have been given to sell the beers at reduced rates,” one official said Looking at the numbers, 4.92 crore beer cases were sold as against 2. 73 crore in the last financial year.
Liquor prices were increased last year after lockdown in the month of May. The price of beer bottles went up by Rs 30. On some varieties, the price hike was Rs 50, taking the base price of a 650-ml premium bottle to Rs 150.
Prices of beer has come down in states like Delhi, but in Telangana, higher prices continued, despite several representations from the industry pending with state government to reduce the MRP price drastically.