Beware, the bottle of premium liquor that you buy from an 'acquaintance' for a hefty discount could be a fake!
Many illegal breweries busted
The state excise department has busted a number of illegal liquor brewing micro units across the state, which 'manufacture' or bottle Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), country liquor (CL) and even beer, which is generally difficult to duplicate as its manufacturing process is quite complex.
State excise commissioner Dr Sanjay Mukherjee told dna that the department had busted a number of such illegal units at Vasai (Thane), Nagpur, Bhusawal (Jalgaon), and (two in) Bhiwandi in a two-month period.
Mixing cheap beer and soda, re-filled in IMFL bottles
These units fill cheap liquor in empty bottles of premium brands and sell it at a margin.
“In Talasari, we busted an illegal beer manufacturing unit where cheap beer and soda were mixed. This beer is not sold at shops, but delivered home,” he added.
Excise officials said they had stepped up vigil to unearth illegal operations as sale of liquor, especially IMFL, peaks during the last two months of the year.
“Many a time, cheap quality liquor is re-filled in empty bottles of premium brands and sold at lower rates claiming it's original.
Govt getting duped of its share of revenue
It's mandatory for five-star hotels, permit rooms, clubs and other retail outlets to break the bottles of premium imported brands of scotch, single malt and tequila and deface or remove the label from empty bottles to prevent their misuse. “However, it's difficult to ensure that individual consumers adhere to this rule,” said an official.
He said fake caps and labels were also used in these operations. In the process, these racketeers also dupe the state government of its share of the revenue.
Mukherjee also cautioned people against buying premium brands at cheaper rates as these would most probably be fakes.
He said excise men had recently nabbed bootleggers from Sarawade in Kolhapur's Radhanagari taluka along with a filling machine, 500 litres of spirit, flavour, 10,000 empty bottles, labels and caps. The total value of the seizure was Rs 2.48 lakh.
The filling machine is used to blend the ingredients and fill bottles. They used to manufacture around 10 to 15 cases a day, said Mukherjee.
The department is now investigating for how long the operation had been going on. One country liquor shop sells around 2-3 cases daily, pointing to the size of the operation. They also seized 500 boxes of illegal country liquor at Yavatmal.
Sales in figures
In 2013-14, IMFL consumption rose by 7.84% (1,615.06 lakh bulk litres (BL) from the 1,497.62 lakh BL in 2012-13. The sale of beer has however headed south at just 2,986.09 lakh BL in 2013-14, down from 3,169.34 lakh BL in the previous fiscal (-5.78%). Country liquor (CL) too fell to 3,210.97 lakh BL from 3,382.99 lakh BL (-5.08%). However, wine consumption rose by 9.71% (50.56 lakh BL) from the previous 46.08 lakh BL.
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