Nine months after shutters went down on all the bars in Kerala as a result of the Congress-led UDF Government’s policy of partial Prohibition, most of the beer and wine parlours in the State are facing closure because of what owners call mounting losses even as employees of the closed bars are preparing to move the High Court seeking rehabilitation.
“We have been keeping these parlours in operation mainly to provide jobs to the employees of our closed bars in the hope of getting a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court in the case pertaining to bar closure. Now that this hope has been lost, we can’t keep the parlours in operation anymore,” said an office-bearer of the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association (KBHA).
The apex court had on Tuesday upheld Kerala Government’s new liquor policy by which all bars except those at Five-Star hotels had to be closed and rejected the petitions filed by bar owners challenging this policy. The verdict has brought uncertainty to more than 18,000 bar employees.
The Government had allotted beer and wine parlour licences liberally after all the bars went out of operation as the liquor policy came into force on April 1, 2015. The bar owners had taken licences for such parlours in order to keep their premises occupied and employees in their jobs hoping for a favourable verdict from the apex court.
According to businessmen in the sector, average daily sales in a beer-wine parlour are worth `20,000 which would not even suffice to meet basic expenses. “The business is not even maintainable unless there is a daily turnover of more than `60,000. It is impossible to achieve this target,” said a parlour owner in Kochi. There are 806 beer-wine parlours in State.
“The expenses for running a bar and a beer-wine parlour are almost the same. This means that we are facing constant losses from this business. We can earn more money than what we get from the parlours by renting out the buildings and other infrastructure. This is going to happen sooner than later,” he said.
Bar operators are now accusing the Government of destroying the bar hotel industry. “The Government is calling us evil-doers. We were running bars like any other business on licences allotted by the Government itself. It should now advise us on what we should do with these buildings, most of which were built on loans,” said the KBHA representative.
In the meantime, the 18,000-odd bar hotel employees who have lost their jobs due to the Government’s liquor policy are preparing to approach the High Court seeking rehabilitation. The Supreme Court had while upholding the liquor policy said that the employees could approach the High Court.
The All Kerala Bar and Restaurant Employees Association points out that the State Government has been earning an average additional income of `28 crore per month from the five-percent cess imposed on liquor price for the specific purpose of employees’ rehabilitation but not even a part of it has so far been spent for the welfare or rehabilitation of the employees.
The major area where these employees could be rehabilitated is the retail liquor outlets but this is impractical theoretically as well as practically as ten per cent of these shops have to be closed every year as per the Government’s liquor policy aiming to make God’s Own Country totally booze-free in ten years. At present, there are 306 retail liquor outlets in operation in Kerala.
The judiciary had earlier ordered reservation of 25 percent of jobs in the retail booze outlets for those who had lost jobs due to the ban on arrack, the cheap, colourless alcohol, in 1996 by then chief minister AK Antony. “Even that process has not been completed so far. So, how can we hope to get rehabilitationIJ” asks Sabu, a bar employee in Kochi.
