The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to fix the minimum age for purchasing and consuming liquor 23 years instead of the present 21 years. It decided to send a recommendation to the Governor for promulgating an Ordinance in this regard.
The Government’s decision to revise the minimum age limit for alcohol consumption is based on the liquor policy of the CPI(M)-led ruling lDF which was announced several months ago. The front had endorsed the liquor policy at its meeting held on June 8 last.
The lDF meet had also recommended measures to penalise those who sold liquor to those who were below the age of 23. The Cabinet approved this proposal also. The lDF aims to control boozing by promoting the principle of abstinence unlike that of the Congress-led Opposition UDF, which believes in imposing Prohibition through phases.
The Government will have to make amendments to the Kerala Abkari Act for raising the minimum boozing age from 21 to 23. It will also have to make changes to the existing rules concerning foreign liquor sales and consumption. The Government is taking the Ordinance route as the Assembly is not convening soon.
The June 8 lDF meet had also decided to reopen bars at hotels with classification of three-star and above and the Government started implementing it in July by permitting reopening of 77 bars. Till then, bars were allowed to operate only at hotels with five-star classification in accordance with the policy of the previous UDF government.
Sources in the Excise Department expected a 15-percent to 20-percent drop in alcohol sale in the State once the Ordinance raising the minimum age limit to 23 years came into force but anti-liquor crusaders said the decision would not have cause any change in the pattern of liquor consumption. “It is just an eyewash,” said an anti-liquor crusader in Thrissur.