MUMBAI: Home delivery of liquor appears to be the need of the lockdown alone in Maharashtra as customers seem to be finding it more reliable to buy liquor across the counter rather than getting it delivered through a third party.
According to the statistics provided by the state excise department, during lockdown people registered home delivery orders up to 60,000 per day in Maharashtra which plummeted to 2500 daily as soon as the shops were opened last year.
Maharashtra registered around 60 lakh home deliveries in the last fiscal between May 15, 2020 and March 31, 2021.
Interestingly, despite allowing home delivery the sale of beer declined 30% in fiscal 2020-21 over 2019-20 as people preferred to shift to spirit and wine to avoid chilled drinks amid corona scare.
Whereas the IMFLs and Wines saw lowest decline of 5% and 6.6% respectively while country liquor sale showed a slump of 9% over 2019-20 fiscal.
The home delivery of liquor has been allowed in Maharashtra only till lockdown exists.
“So far it is not a long term policy but a temporary measure to ensure availability of liquor, keep state revenue going and ensure social distancing.
Any long-term policy decision regarding home delivery will have to be taken by the state cabinet,” said principal secretary state excise and tourism Valsa Nair Singh.
As of today only the license holder shops and bars have been allowed to make home delivery of liquor till 8 pm during lockdown period.
In the absence of lockdown same deadline is 10 pm.
“However, issues such as reliability of delivery by a third person, especially fear of duplication of costly liquor bottles, are evident from the statistics of daily deliveries during and after lockdowns,” a senior state official pointed out.
Confrontations between shops and home delivery aggregators who also want permission of liquor delivery are still to be resolved if long-term policy is to be devised, he pointed out.
Another senior excise official said in home delivery one cannot guarantee quality in delivery and third party delivery is even more dangerous.
“It is government’s job to ensure delivery of essentials to the citizens not to provide for their vices.
Current legislation in Maharashtra does not provide for online or e-commerce sales,” he added.
Sumit Chawla, vice president of the association of progressive retail liquor vendors association, said they were very happy with the government decision.
“Since we show owners across the state have our dedicated lot of customers with whom there is a bond of trust, we don’t want to lose it by bringing third party.
Vendors are capable of doing the delivery through their own staff who too are known to customers.
Since it is our staff the responsibility of delivering quality is upon us.
By bringing in third party we don’t want to leave any scope of mistrust between us and our customers,” he said.
Presently the liquor is being ordered by people through apps developed by individual shops or through text messages, social media platforms or calls.
“We are avoiding online or advanced payment due to recent cyber frauds.
We want our customers to make payment through debit/credit cards once our delivery boy reaches them or pay cash.
These are the safest options,” said Chawla pointing out that all types of bottles and brands were available to customers through home delivery.