The excise department has decided to make it mandatory for every licensed liquor shop to install an electronic gadget that a customer can use to check whether the purchased product is genuine.

A senior excise department officer said around 5,000 liquor shops would have to install the gadget from next month. Shop owners will have to ask customers to check the genuineness of the bottle before leaving the counter.

The gadget looks like a rechargeable torch that needs to be pointed at the hologram on the bottle before pressing a dedicated button. Once the button is pressed, the gadget will read the hologram and announce through its speaker whether it is genuine and approved by the excise department.

"The gadget has a preinstalled system that can read out the specific hologram that we use as a label on the bottles of both Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and those imported from abroad," the officer said.

The excise department has launched a new hologram to help the gadget read it. The new hologram will be pasted on IMFL and imported liquor bottles from April 1. However, a source said it would take at least a month for bottles with new holograms to reach the outlets.

"The new hologram will carry a dedicated QR code for the specific brand. The gadget is also capable to read out product details like brand name and manufacturing date," another officer said.

The department will provide the gadget to the licensees against an amount.

A source in the excise department said there were two reasons behind the gadget's installation at shops. First, it will curb the sale of spurious liquor or liquor being sold without the authentication of the government. Second, a customer will know about the genuineness of the drink.

"We want to ensure that all liquor bottles being sold from licensed retail outlets are approved by our department. If any untoward incident happens after consuming liquor, it always becomes the responsibility of the government. So, we want to allow everyone to check the bottle before they consume it," said a senior excise department official.

The government faced embarrassment several times following deaths resulting from the consumption of liquor. There were complaints during a few hooch tragedies that spurious liquor had been bought from licensed shops.

"We know all customers might not start checking bottles from Day One. We will start a campaign at liquor shops to urge customers to use the gadget," said another officer.

However, a section of liquor shop owners asked whether a single gadget would be enough during long queues outside the outlets.

The department said once the facility became popular, shop owners would be requested to erect more gadgets.