Chennai: Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) had announced implementation of a Government Order (GO) on closing down 500 retail liquor outlets operated by it, on Wednesday. It said the shops won't function from June 22.
Former Tamil Nadu Excise and Prohibition Minister V Senthil Balaji had made the announcement in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, on April 12, 2023. Based on the announcement, a GO dated April 20, 2023, was issued to identify and shut down 500 shops across the state. TASMAC, in a statement, said that it has identified 500 shops as per the GO and those shops will not function from June 22, i.e., tomorrow.
While Senthil Balaji has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and hospitalised for heart-related ailment, the portfolio was reassigned to S Muthusamy. Earlier on Tuesday, Muthusamy said the state govt will close down 500 liquor shops. TASMAC is a company owned by the state government which oversees wholesale and retail sales of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and imported alcoholic beverages in the state.
Muthusamy had categorically said the government is running TASMAC not as money spinner or to fund the coffers of the government. "Rather, it is to reduce the number of liquor addicts. Also, fixing a target of garnering Rs 50,000 crore in liquor sales is also to prevent the illicit distillation of arrack, etc.," Muthusamy maintained when asked to reason to the target fixed in liquor sales.
On March 31, 2004, there were 7,896 retail liquor shops in the State. On March 31, 2023, the number of shops was reduced to 5,329. As many as 1,379 out of the 5,329 shops have bars attached to them. The remainder operate as standalone shops. In 2015, the government had closed 500 shops. Two years later, another 500 shops were closed.
