HBI Staff | Mumbai 
The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), the highest authority in the Indian alcohol industry, has praised the Manipur government’s decision to lift the ban on alcohol. It has also urged the Bihar government to lift prohibition in order to strengthen the state’s economy, put an end to the illegal trade in subpar alcohol, and prevent tragedies related to hooch.
Vinod Giri, Director General, CIABC, said, “By ending the over three-decade-long prohibition, the Manipur government has taken a positive step forward which would not only earn Rs 600-700 crore as annual tax revenues, but also help tackle the menace of the sale of illegal liquor and the spread of drugs. It is going to give a major fillip to the state’s economic growth.”
According to CIABC, the government of Bihar should likewise follow suit and repeal the ban, which has hampered the state’s progress and caused numerous fatalities from alcohol-related incidents.
“Bihar is paying a heavy price for the prohibition policy in the form of the proliferation of unlawful and spurious liquor, hooch tragedies, the rise of crime syndicates, and loss of legitimate Government revenues,” said Giri.
He said that the state of Bihar is losing out on revenue from the legal liquor trade, which is believed to be worth about Rs 10,000 crore annually, and that this has had an impact on the state’s growth and development.
“Repeated hooch tragedies have so far seen over 300 deaths since 2016, close to 500,000 cases are pending in courts clogging the justice delivery system, and around 300,000 people have been put behind bars for something which the rest of the country finds perfectly lawful,” he added.
Source: Business Standard
