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Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Punjabi tipplers graduating to foreign liquor, sales jump 10-fold in four years
More and more people in Punjab are now opting for Imported Foreign Liquor (IFL), data available with with the state's excise and taxation department has revealed. Approximately 2.5 lakh cases of IFL were sold in Punjab in the 2024-25 fiscal ending March 31, as compared to 1 lakh cases sold in 2022-23, and only 20,000 cases in 2021-22. 'Punjabi tipplers have gradually graduated to the IFL. However, the sale of Punjab Medium Liquor (PML) was recorded to be 32 times more than IFL. As many as 80 lakh cases of PML were sold in the 2024-25 fiscal,' an excise department official said. In its liquor policy formulated for the state last year, the Punjab government had reduced the prices of IFL and there was no change in the prices of PML. Buoyed by the increase in demand, the government, in the excise policy for the current fiscal, made Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and Imported Foreign Liquor (IFL) costlier, targeting to collect Rs 11,020 crore in revenue — a sharp rise of Rs 875 crore over last fiscal. 'Every bottle of IFL cost lesser last year. It was felt that the IFL was consumed by Punjabis at weddings and other celebratory parties. But a large quantity was being smuggled in from Haryana and Chandigarh, where it was cheaper than Punjab. This segment was troubling us. We rationalised the fee structure by bringing about changes in the price-determining formula. This has paid dividends and the volume of sales has risen,' the official said. This year's policy has made IMFL costlier by Rs 10-20 per bottle, while the IFL has seen a marginal increase in prices. The price of Punjab Medium Liquor (PML) or country-made liquor and beer has not been changed. The government, another excise department official, said did not hike the prices of country made liquor as it is a segment catering to rural masses and is a major revenue generator. This official too said that residents of the state were graduating from country made liquor to IFL. 'The transition has started but still the country made liquor sells the most. In fact, all segments are growing. Every year, we see 7-8 per cent growth in the trade as more youths are added to the list of tipplers,' he said. Punjab was already giving a tough time to Chandigarh having made the quota of liquor unlimited, and IMFL and country made liquor cheaper than neighbouring Haryana and the joint Capital, in its first policy after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government took over the reins of the state. Now, to make dividends, the government has increased quota of country made liquor by 3 per cent. — from 8.286 crore proof litres in 2024-25 to 8.534 crore proof litres in 2025-26. After the IFL, the government is now looking at selling more beer and has reduced the license fee for the beer shops considerably. It will be Rs 25,000 next fiscal, a sharp decline from Rs 2 lakh per shop last fiscal. A source in the government said that last year only 25 new shops were set up across the state.
Arab News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Morocco commutes sentence of detained former minister
RABAT: A Moroccan court has commuted the prison sentence of opposition figure and former Minister Mohammed Ziane from five to three years, his lawyer said on Thursday. The former human rights minister had been detained since 2022 and served a three-year term in a different case. Ziane, 82, the former president of the Rabat Bar Association, was convicted on 'embezzlement and squandering of public funds,' said his son and lawyer, Ali Reda Ziane. The charges relate to funds the Moroccan Liberal Party, or PML — of which Ziane was founder and chief — received during a 2015 electoral campaign. He was sentenced to five years in prison in July last year. Even with the court reducing his sentence late Wednesday, 'it remains heavy,' said his lawyer. 'He deserves to be acquitted because there was no embezzlement.' The lawyer said whether the sentences in the two cases would be served concurrently or consecutively remained unclear. Proceedings in the initial case followed an Interior Ministry complaint on seven counts, among them contempt of public officials and the judiciary, defamation, adultery, and sexual harassment. But Ziane has alleged that he was detained 'because of (his political) opinion.' The opposition figure had become known in recent years for statements criticizing the authorities in Morocco, particularly the intelligence services.
