The LDF government has, after spirited deliberations in various party forums, decided to dump two potentially controversial decisions related to booze.
Dry days, which normally falls on the first working day of every month, would continue as before; tourism destinations, too, would have to observe the day as usual. And the proposal to open pubs across the state has also been rejected.
Both did not find a place in the draft Liquor Policy that was approved by the Cabinet here on Tuesday. As if to further prove that the LDF government will in no way encourage liquor consumption, the draft policy has fixed a higher annual fee for bars; from Rs 28 lakh it has been raised to Rs 30 lakh. The bar licence fee of clubs has also been raised, from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.
The draft policy also brings back the former system of auctioning toddy shops. During the last three years, the LDF government had pursued a policy of renewing the licences of existing toddy shops every year. There are 5171 toddy shops in 909 groups. The government sets a base price for shops in each group and puts them up for auction. This is seen as an attempt to mobilise more revenue.
Excise minister T P Ramakrishnan, in what looked like an attempt to test which way the wind of public opinion was blowing, had suggested that the opening of pubs was under consideration. “Pub, beer parlour licences can be given to beverages corporation, joint sector hotels, including the KTDC, on remittance of Rs 50,000 licence fee, as per the Kerala Foreign Liquor Rules 13(13). IT/tourist sectors have made requests for starting pubs,” the minister said in the Kerala Assembly early this month.
The proposal was examined in detail within the CPM State Committee held last week. The general consensus was that any move to open pubs, a heady symbol of capitalism, could sully the image of the party in the run up to the local body polls.
The 'withdraw dry day' proposal too was disapproved by the State Committee. Kerala's logic for persisting with the 'dry day' was to prevent men from blowing their salary on bottles the very first day they earned it.
However, the Excise Department is said to have told that the policy was ineffective. The Department had argued that liquor consumption had shot up even when duties on bottles were fixed exorbitantly high. So, the argument was, 'dry day' is too silly a deterrent. Moreover, it was felt that most companies, even government departments, don't pay salaries on the first day of the month.
The CPM State Committee had concluded that even if the 'dry day' concept did not serve its purpose doing away with it could be politically harmful. It could be perceived as a slight to great men like Gandhi and Narayana Guru and could also be seen as encouragement.
Besides the first working day of the month, dry days are observed on Gandhi Jayanti (October 2), Martyr's day (January 30), Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti and Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi.
If taking out dry days would put the government on the defensive, it was the suggested that such a day could be withdrawn from tourist centres. The draft policy has not agreed to even this selective withdrawal.
