india

Updated: Oct 28, 2019 19:58 IST

The Tamil Nadu government, which has a monopoly over the sale of IMFL, has raked in Rs 455 crore beyond its target of Rs 385 crore during the three-day Diwali holiday, official sources said on Monday.

The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), which runs retail outlets, has broken a new record on these three days, including Diwali on October 27. Sources said the sale of liquor on October 25 was Rs 100 crore, Rs 183 crore on October 26 and Rs 172 crore on October 27.

Last year, TASMAC had earned Rs 325 crore during this holiday. The total sale during the Diwali season in 2017 was Rs 245 crore and Rs 265 crore in 2016.

Before Diwali, TASMAC’s sales touched a whopping Rs 735 crore during the five-day Pongal festival in January this year. The Madurai region was at the top of the sales chart.

To achieve the target, the TASMAC management had reportedly issued directives to the employees to keep the required level of stocks and advised them not to take leave besides being punctual in opening the outlets.

In Tamil Nadu, sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) is the monopoly of the state government which markets and runs retail outlets through TASMAC. The revenue from TASMAC helps the government bankroll its populist programmes.

The revenue from IMFL sale was stated as Rs 26,000 crore and the total turnover at Rs 31,757 crore in the 2018-19 budget.

During festivals in Tamil Nadu, liquor consumption sees a 20-30% jump enhancing the revenue of the government. While liquor sale is in the range of Rs 70-80 crore on weekdays, it goes to Rs 100 crore on weekends.

The most preferred choice of guzzlers in the state is brandy, accounting for 60% of the liquor sales.

TASMAC operates nearly 4600 liquor shops across the state with Chennai accounting for 300 of them.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) has criticised the government for fixing a sales target when the economic slowdown has robbed the festive mood.

“Rather than addressing the issue of massive job loss and ensuring that essentials are available to the poor under the Public Distribution System (PDS), the government is setting wrong priorities like fixing liquor sales,” the party’s state secretary R Mutharasan said.