The Jharkhand government is likely to discontinue home delivery of liquor through third party mobile apps because of poor response to the facility, a highly placed source in the state excise department said on Tuesday.
“We will not renew our contract with third party home delivery apps. The response to online sale of liquor has been poor, and there is no overcrowding at the liquor shops either,” said the excise official, who has been involved in the online sale here.
Last month, the government roped in popular food delivery app, Swiggy, to deliver liquor to doorsteps in urban Jharkhand in a bid to ensure social distancing at the liquor shops when they reopened after the lockdown.
Liquor shops in the state remained closed from March 24 to May 19. And according to senior government officials, this dry period caused major revenue loss to Jharkhand.
The government decided to hike the price of liquor by 25 per cent in order to make up for the revenue lost during lockdown. The Value Added Tax (VAT) was increased from 50 per cent to 75 per cent and an additional 10 per cent excise duty was also added.
In addition to the hiked price, Swiggy charged Rs 75 for each delivery and a customer had to place orders worth more than Rs 500 to avail of the home delivery facility. The government was also in talks with other local companies for home delivery of liquor but no further communication with any such company is in process anymore, sources from the excise department said.
An official from the excise department said that only about half a dozen liquor orders were placed on Swiggy in the past 20 days. Excise secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey could not be contacted for his remarks.
Arun Chawla, former general secretary of Jharkhand Liquor Traders Welfare Association, said that a state like Jharkhand was not yet ready for online delivery of liquor. “The government has to understand that consumers in Jharkhand are not yet ready to pay extra money and get liquor delivered at home. The price hike by the government has also played a spoilsport here,” he said.
