AP IASs reportedly asked for Budweiser Beers To Increase Sales!

Andhra Pradesh’s financial crisis is mainly attributed to the lack of revenue resources. With limited revenue resources, the state government is highly dependent on the excise department. Though the YCP government campaigns that it would be prohibiting liquor in the state, the contrary is, the government wants to make more money from liquor sales.

A report from a leading newspaper claims that the Chief Secretary (CS) of the state himself is holding a review meeting on liquor sales every Monday and pressuring the officials of excise department to increase the sales. District Collectors, Superintend of Police (SP) of that particular district and excise department officials are part of this review meeting.

Off the record, when the CS is questioning Collectors on low sales, the reply is quite shocking. In a private conversation, a few District Collectors informed that there is a demand for the Budweiser beer brand and requested for the supply. If this brand of beer is made available, the sales might increase opined Collectors.

For the year 2020-2021, the state government earned a revenue of Rs 20,895 crore through liquor sales and now it has a set target of Rs 30,535 crore which is nearly over Rs 10,000 crore and it’s a record.

Since the state government is running close to 3000 liquor stores across all the 13 districts, it has divided the stores in three categories. If the sales are above expectations, it is categorized in A segment and if the sales are medium, it falls in B category. But the higher authorities want all the liquor stores in the state to attain A category status.

From November 14th to 20th, the liquor sales were Rs 419 crore while from November 21st to 27th, it was Rs 440 crore and for the following week i.e, from November 28th to December 4th, it is Rs 441 crore. This means the daily business is happening around Rs 63 crore and now the target set by the government is Rs 84 crore per day and Rs 10 crore per hour.

The report of the media outlet further claims that if the sales and revenues are kept aside, the District Collectors are said to be embarrassed attending the review meeting being held on liquor sales. A few District Collectors are uncomfortable to make it to this meeting but then they have no other option.

While this is the case of Collectors, the Chief Secretary is unhappy with the police department. Ever since the liquor prices touched the sky in AP, people are buying in Telangana and transporting to AP through illegal means. Recently we have seen AP police deploying checkposts at the borders and checking every vehicle entering AP. Yet the Chief Secretary is disappointed with the efforts of the police.

In the last 18 months, 40,700 vehicles transporting liquor from neighboring states were seized by the AP Police and 1.67 Lakh cases were filed.