Hyderabad: It was a bad day for beer lovers on Monday as the state government stopped supplies of their favourite drink to liquor dealers across Telangana. The sudden development triggered speculations that the supplies were stopped because the state government wants to reduce beer prices across all brands by Rs 10 per bottle and print revised prices on bottles which is expected to take two more days.
Although the state government has not make any official announcement on reducing beer prices so far, it is widely believed that the orders in this regard are expected in a day or two.
Official sources said the move was aimed to encourage beer sales which took a drastic hit due to Covid outbreak in March, 2020 with people avoiding consuming cold items because of the unfounded fear of catching the disease.
Liquor dealers said the depots of TS Breweries Corporation Ltd have 18 lakh cases of beer. Each case has 12 bottles. This apart, another 68 lakh cases are lying in beer distilleries. The government now wants to print revised prices on all these stocks and supply them to liquor dealers across the state.
In 2019-20, over 4.92 crore beer cases were sold in Telangana state while 3.48 crore cases of liquor were sold. Due to Covid outbreak in 2020-21, beer sales fell sharply to 2.73 crore cases while liquor maintained almost the same level of 3.35 crore cases.
Popular brands Royal Challenge and Kingfisher are presently sold for Rs 150 (light) and Rs 160 (strong). Mini beer bottles of all brands are sold for Rs 100 (light) and Rs 110 (strong).
Last year, the state government increased liquor rates by 16 per cent to generate more revenues to tide over the Coronavirus-induced financial crisis. With this, the beer price increased from Rs 120 to Rs 150 (light). The government now wants to reduce this price by Rs 10 per bottle on all brands.
