The state excise department has put a stop to discounts and other incentives that a section of retail liquor outlets offered to “lure” customers.
Retailers across the state will have to sell alcohol at the maximum retail price determined by the state excise.
A retail licensee will also not be able to engage in any promotional activities that could lead to “profiteering”, like gifts to patrons to encourage consumption of a certain brand.
An “advisory” — that retailers said was binding — issued by the excise commissioner on January 9 said the move followed “representation from various stakeholders as also reports from the field level officials... alleging adoption of some incentive-based means by some retail excise vendors to lure the consumers with intent to maximise the sale of some specific brands of liquor”.
Such promotional offers “in the form of cash discounts, gifts and others are contrary to the accepted government policy towards not encouraging indiscriminate growth in consumption of intoxicants... and often tend to be guided solely by profit motives of the excise licensees resulting in unhealthy business practices,” the advisory says.
“It is hereby advised that all the retail license holders for alcoholic beverages in West Bengal shall duly refrain from adopting any extra means to allure the alcohol customers with due regard to the government policy,” the advisory adds.
Excise sources said that there had been representations from a section of small and medium-sized retailers alleging large retailers with deep pockets were offering discounts on the state-determined MRP to boost their sales, in turn hurting the business of the smaller players.
“It is important to have a level playing field for all licensed retailers, large and small, and no licensed brand should be promoted ahead of another,” a senior excise official said.
This newspaper spoke to multiple off-shop owners. All of them shared the same sentiment. “I can never match the discounts given by the hypermarts because I don’t deal in bulk like them,” said a store owner in south Kolkata.
Bijon Patra, secretary of the Welfare of Foreign Liquors Association of West Bengal — one of the associations that had appealed to the excise department — welcomed the move.
“The excise rules govern the trade. The promotional offers are against the excise rules. It was leading to a dip in business for small players,” he said.
In the first week of January, a Ballygunge resident visited a large-format store in South City Mall. His liquor purchase bill exceeded Rs 15,000. It made him eligible for a discount of Rs 3,000. But there was no such ongoing “promotional offer” on Saturday.
Many Kolkatans said the app of a retail chain would earlier highlight a “6 per cent discount” on purchase of liquor of Rs 2,000 and above on some brands . On Saturday, the offer was nowhere to be seen on the app.
Clubs and bars
Most clubs in Kolkata have an off-shop. Most off-shops offered discounts on some premium brands throughout the year. That has stopped after the circular.
“We are selling at MRP in the wake of the excise notice,” said an office-bearer at CC&FC.
A Lake Club official echoed him. “We are abiding by what the excise department has said. Some members are not happy. But there is no other option,” he said.
The “happy hours” or “2:1” offers at bars and clubs are also on hold.
“These offers were given by the liquor companies. They reimburse the difference (in money, between the usual and the discounted price). But since the excise notice bars any promotional offer, the firms are playing it safe now,” said a member of a south Kolkata club.
A section of bar-cum-restaurant owners said the excise advisory was for retail outlets and not for them.
“We are not selling bottles from the counter. A beer that costs Rs 150 at a shop is priced at Rs 350 at my establishment. I should be allowed to sell two beers at Rs 550 if I want,” said the owner of a bar-cum-restaurant in central Kolkata.
Shiladitya Chaudhury, the owner of Chapter 2 and a governing body member of the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Eastern India, said: “We will soon write to the excise commissioner, seeking a clarification so that bars and restaurants are allowed to tweak their prices of alcohol.”