Excise Minister M Liju on Friday said that any application for registration submitted by a liquor brand for the sale of low-alcohol drinks in Kerala would be rejected. The minister said that this would be the official policy until the UDF comes to a decision on whether to allow the sale of low-alcohol liquor in Kerala, and the Abkari Policy was firmed up.
Under the Kerala Foreign Liquor (Registration of Brand) Rules, brands of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), wine, and beer must be officially registered with the Excise Department. And the registration has to be renewed every year.
On the face of it, the excise minister’s stand aligns with Chief Minister V D Satheesan’s declaration in the Assembly that minor alcohol drinks would be sold only with the UDF’s permission. In other words, if the UDF collectively decides not to permit its sale, his budget proposal fixing two tax slabs for low-alcohol liquor will be rendered invalid.
However, what the Chief Minister has left unsaid has caused confusion. “In the reply to the Budget discussion, the Chief Minister could have said that he was dropping the proposal for the time being. Anyway, these would be made operational only after the Abkari policy was drawn up and the consent of the UDF constituents was secured. Still, if the CM had not dropped these tax proposals, it was only because he was keeping open the possibility of including them in the Finance Bill,” a top UDF leader said. The Finance Bill will be tabled in the Assembly on July 1.
It is the Finance Bill that gives legal force to the Budget proposals, particularly taxes. So, if included, these tax proposals will become law. The Finance Bill also prescribes the date on which the tax proposals announced in the Budget will come into effect.
Nonetheless, a government also has the option not to fix a specific time in the Finance Bill for a proposal to become operational. It can say that the date of implementation will be notified later.
Top UDF sources say that the CM will include these proposals in the Finance Bill. “It is a compromise. It will look like the CM has not made a U-turn and thus can save himself some embarrassment,” the UDF source said. Since a date has not been notified, the Excise Department, as ordered by the excise minister, can reject applications for the sale of low-alcohol without fearing a legal backlash.
Eventually, if the UDF junks the proposal, the proposal will die a natural death. The Finance Bill for the next fiscal, 2027-28, will not have these tax proposals.
While talking to reporters on Friday, Excise Minister Liju did a fine balancing act. On the one hand, he refuted the allegation that he was unhappy that the Chief Minister had not consulted him before announcing the tax rates. “Has any finance minister ever asked a concerned minister about the tax rate he would be prescribing in the Budget? Is there a need for it,” he said.
But on the other, he categorically stated that the sale of low-alcohol liquor would depend on the UDF’s Abkari Policy. He said the policy would be drawn up only after holding exhaustive deliberations with stakeholders including prohibition groups, restaurant and bar owners and also bar workers. Till then, the Excise Department will reject any applications for the sale of low-alcohol liquor in Kerala.
He did not find anything inappropriate in Congress veteran V M Sudheeran’s vehement objection to the move, either. “What is wrong in Sudheeran giving his opinion,” Liju said. “This is a democratic society. Different opinions will be aired and decisions emerge from these plurality of thoughts,” he said.
The excise minister said that the CM’s Budget announcement was just a financial decision. “The GST Department and the Finance Department were looking at the revenue aspect of the decision. Implementation is different. That is a policy decision. You cannot mistake a financial decision for a policy decision,” the minister said.
While Liju draws up the UDF’s Draft Abkari Policy, the Chief Minister is expected to hold one-to-one discussions with UDF allies to persuade them about the fiscal logic of his proposal. At the moment, it is only the RSP that favours the sale. The Muslim League and the Kerala Congress are against it.
Ernakulam-Angamaly Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany has profusely thanked the Chief Minister for leaving the decision to the collective wisdom of the UDF. The Bishop called the move “imaginative” and “courageous”.
“When Operation Toofan (fight against drugs launched by the Home Department) is making its presence across the state, it was very courageous of the CM not to give the impression that the government had even the slightest inclination to favour other kinds of intoxicants,” Bishop Pamplani said.
Implied in the praise was the church’s opposition to the move.
Muslim League president Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, too, had used a similar argument. “At a time when the people of Kerala has taken up Operation Toofan to banish drugs from their lives, the government should be able to address the concerns that have arisen as a result of the tax rates announced in the budget for liquor,” Thangal said.
The general mood in the UDF is against the sale of low-alcohol drinks.
