India. Tamil Nadu bars in all Tasmac outlets closed

Post published:08/02/2016
Reading time:3 min(s) read

In a tug of over renewal of bar licence, the arm twisting resorted to by Coimbatore District Bar Owners Association with the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) officials resulted in the authorities closing and sealing all the 196 bars in Coimbatore district since February 4.

When the validity of the existing licence was about to expire, the Tasmac floated tenders to enable the bar licensees to bid for the same for getting it renewed for the second time. Tenders floated in November and December 2015 and January 2016 had no takers. Bar owners abstained for even picking up the application for getting the licence renewed.

Bar owners pay a licence fee ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs. 4 lakh per month depending on the area and the projected sale volume. In addition, licence fee for two months is paid as deposit. According to Mr. Azhagu, president of Coimbatore District Bar Owners Association, this time they wanted a fresh tender to be floated and were ready to bid for it afresh. Meanwhile, they wanted the authorities to deduct the deposit amount for two months i.e., the intervening period between the expiry of licence and renewal of licence including the time taken for bidding for tenders and finalisation of the same and issue of fresh licences. They alleged that whenever licence changes hands, getting back the deposits took anywhere between two to four years.

Tasmac officials say that the deposit amount rests with the State Government and is never at the dispensation of authorities at the local level. Bar owners should have made a representation to the Tasmac higher officials in Chennai and only on orders from them, deduction could be done. However, the bar owners never made any concrete move for the same, but kept pressing for it orally and that too with the officials at the district and zonal level. This particular demand and deadlock over renewal of licence is unique to Coimbatore and no other district had witnessed the same.

However, with the deadlock having remained unresolved, officials commenced a drive to lock and seal all the bars as the validity of the existing licence had expired and continuance of bars beyond the date would amount to violation of licensing conditions. The district has 126 Tasmac outlets in Coimbatore North and 104 in South. Of the 230, closer to 196 had bars. Now, almost all the 196 bars had been locked and sealed.

While closure of outlets resulted in tipplers starting to consume liquor in public places creating nuisance, which in itself is an offence under Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, bar owners said that they had paid rent for the premises and bar attendants (servers) had to be paid salaries without any work. Mr. Azhagu said that with outlets not having a bar, the Tasmac sale was dipping every day causing a loss to the State exchequer.

Countering this argument, officials say that elite Tasmac outlets in high-end areas and malls (without bars) have a very good patronage which is consistently on the rise. In the last-days after the closure of bars, there has not been any significant dip in sale volumes.

When contacted, District Collector Archana Patnaik said that officials were in talks with the bar owners and a fresh date had been fixed for floating of tenders again for the fourth time on February 25. Ms. Patnaik said that by then the issue would be resolved.

Tags: beer in India

Beer Business #4-2021. Poland beer market analysis
20/02/2022
Current data The influence of export and import Non-alcoholic boom Output and market by value Beer prices Who can afford beer? Segmentation by price Segmentation by channels of sales Beer sales in HoReCa Segmentation by tastes Positions of major companies Kompania Piwowarska (Asahi) Grupa Żywiec (Heineken) Carlsberg Polska Van Pur Polish craft brewers Is there […]...

Beer Business #3-2021. Russian beer market. Beer market of Ukraine.
16/10/2021
In 2021 Russian breweries have not lost their consumers, it even turned out that they started drinking more beer at home and more often. The market has held the high bar of the previous season, yet now it is growing by value and polarizing by price segments. The competition in the market has been determined […]...

Beer Business #2-2021. Kazakhstan beer market: bigger, more complex and more expensive
26/07/2021
Kazakhstan beer market is still growing by volume and value. The consumers’ demands are gradually becoming more complex, there is the market polarization by price and taste segments as license, canned, strong and mild beer popularity is growing. Eye catching new products have a big impact on companies’ positions in the situation of limited advertising. […]...

Beer Business #1-2021. Ubrew – Catalogue of Ukrainian breweries
06/05/2021
The catalogue of Ukrainian breweries contains 251 producers ranging from transnational groups to craft and restaurant breweries. In the catalogue we have combined open official data, information from social networks and where possible, from brewers themselves. The previous “census” was made by us in 2011-2012. So, what has changed over the recent ten years and […]...

Beer Business #4-2020. Russia: regional beer markets
21/01/2021
In the seven regions of Russia we have analyzed: the share of companies of various scales – from federal breweries to minibreweries popularity of brands (license, national and regional); market segmentations by price; the dynamics of output, sales and prices...

Beer Business #2-2020. 2020 what’s new?
20/11/2020
Russian beer market 2020 1) The market positions of the major companies and brands in the first half of 2020; 2) Production structure – from craft to federal breweries; 3) The market segmentation by the price and package. In 2020, the roles of sale channels have changed especially at the draft beer market. The relations […]...

Beer Business #2-2020. The market of non-alcoholic beer in Russia: companies, brands and consumers
01/07/2020
Where is the non-alcoholic beer market heading to? Companies and brands. Baltika as a democratic leader. Heineken – how do you shake up the market and shove up the competitors. AB InBev Efes – premium corner. Non-alcoholic import beer. Non-alcoholic beer – Who drinks it? General conclusions. Summer beer....

Beer Business #1-2020. Russian beer producers (catalogue/database)
27/04/2020
“Catalogue of Russian Beer Producers 2020” includes 1285 businesses ranging from large subsidiaries of international companies to rather small restaurant and craft breweries. This issue has 171 more breweries compared to 2018 (155 business have been excluded and 326 have been included). Starting from 2019, FTS has been publishing data on excise payments by brewers […]...

Beer Business (Pivnoe Delo) #4-2019
09/02/2020
Dmitry Nekrasov’s Philosophy — on the Past, Present and Future of Ukrainian Brewing Industry A meeting with Dmitry Nekrasov always turns into a training course: “Introduction to brewing business“. We are talking to a clever “playing trainer“ a person that can be called a godfather of the Ukrainian craft. He has a dozen of successful […]...

Beer Business (Pivnoe Delo) #3-2019
10/11/2019
Russia: Positions of Brewing Companies The review contains an analysis of interim performance of brewers in the first half of 2019. There are rather dynamic changes behind a modest industry growth. Baltika is again experiencing a stage of volumes and market share slid due to competition with AB InBev Efes. Because of the price competition […]...