Almost a year after imposing prohibition on alcohol in Bihar, the Nitish Kumar Government has decided to shut down liquor factories as well. The State Government has ordered that the licences of beer and extra-neutral alcohol manufacturing units and IMFl bottling plants will not be renewed in the next financial year. With this decision the Government would incur another `300 crore annual loss after losing `4,000 crore annual revenue by implementing total prohibition.
The decision taken by the Cabinet would see the closure of 21 factories manufacturing country made foreign liquor and beer but six factories would escape this ban as they are manufacturing only ethanol. The Government has proposed the liquor manufacturing factories to either shut down or manufacture some other non-alcoholic drink. Some of these factories are owned by Carlsberg, United Breweries and Cobra companies.
The decision came just three days before the formation of 11,000 km long human chain in support of total prohibition in the State on January 21 for which preparations are going on full swing on Government level.
Bihar Cabinet Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra said, “license for 21 distilleries will not be renewed from 2017-18 fiscal. These units may be allowed to operate if they start manufacturing non-alcoholic beverages.” The closure will also leave hundreds of people engaged in those units jobless.
Only a few months back, in September, the Government had not only waived taxes on liquor manufacturing units but also announced to extend such benefits to new plants provided they sold the beverages outside Bihar in order to lure investment in the liquor manufacturing sector. The opposition had criticised this move saying it was ridiculous to ban liquor on the on hand and inviting liquor manufacturing factories to invest by promising them tax benefits.
Welcoming the new decision, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, “We had been demanding closure of liquor manufacturing units if the Government was serious about prohibition.” The factories going to be closed had invested over Rs 1,000 crore. last week the United Breweries had sent proposal to set up Rs 304 crore unit for malt based alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages but it was turned down by the Government.
The 21 brewing factories have been manufacturing capacity of over 40 lakh litre per month and had got exception from export duty and license fee. The products were being exported to other States after prohibition was imposed in Bihar.