Kerala's Left Front govt to put prohibition on hold

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The Communist-led government in Kerala is planning to put on hold the prohibition policy initiated by the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front government.

According to reliable sources, the government has decided to remove the restrictions imposed by the previous government in opening new beer parlours and toddy (spirit made from coconut tree sap) outlets throughout the state with the basic objective of rehabilitating those displaced by the arrack (raw liquor) ban. The government intends to allow the 20,000 idle work force to run these outlets as cooperative ventures.

Although the previous government had promised to rehabilitate the displaced workers, the steps initiated by that government have been found inadequate to solve the problem. The decision to allow new outlets runs contrary to the previous government's plan of implementing prohibition in a phased manner. The Congress-led government had intended to reduce the number of outlets year after year, culminating in total prohibition.

With regard to the duty on Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL), the LDF feels that the 200 per cent hike in duty by the previous government had become counterproductive with the government losing its revenue on the one hand and spurious liquor gaining considerable market in the state on the other. The excise minister himself had admitted that smuggling was rampant because of the unrealistic situating prevailing in the state.

The government is planning to cut the hike by half, which will help the government contain smuggling as well as augment its revenue by the reduction. Although the government expected a substantial increase in its revenue from the IMFL consequent to the ban on arrack, the revenue increase was only marginal. The additional revenue the government got on this count was Rs 1.5 billion up to December 1996, despite the 200 per cent hike in duty. The consumption has also increased only marginally by 200,000 cases.

The previous government had hiked the duty of IMFL with the social objective of discouraging at least the lower and lower-middle class from consuming liquor. The government intended to make the price unaffordable to these sections. However, with low-cost liquor being made available by the liquor lobby to these very sections, the objective was defeated.

The arrack ban, which was the high point of the UDF's phased prohibition initiative, will continue though there exist many differences within the LDF on this.

One section feels that the ruling front should stick to its declared policy of not imposing prohibition from the top. They prefer the government educating the people about the evils of alcohol and make the people voluntarily keep off the bottle.