New Year bash: Telangana brews Rs 500 crore liquor sales

Hyderabad: Liquor sales across Telangana skyrocketed in the last three days of 2019 as the public prepared to welcome the New Year. The industry raked in Rs 500 crore in revenues, clocking an increase of 7-10 percent compared with the previous new year celebrations.

Hyderabad led from the front, with sales in GHMC accounting for 60 percent of total business in the state, said an official. Over 83.43 lakh litres of liquor was consumed in the state. The last day of 2019, December 31, witnessed a 200 percent jump in sales, said a wine shop owner.

The sales volume in December alone was more than Rs 2,000 crore in Telangana, giving a daily average of Rs 65 crore. The last two days of December saw the figures touching Rs 380 crore. "The sweeping coldwave further boosted the demand for IML (hard) sales,” said the official.

Three lakh cases of liquor on December 30 and two lakh cases on December 31 were sold. Boozers in Telangana downed 40 lakh litres of beer and 44 lakh litres of hard liquor in these two days, added the official.

Meanwhile, the Telangana police slapped 3,150 drunk-and-drive cases against vehicle drivers on December 31 night. Of these, there were about 950 cases in Hyderabad Commissionerate, 870 in Cyberabad Commissionerate and 280 in Rachakonda Commissionerate. Nalgonda district recorded the highest cases among other districts.

“According to the provisional data, we observed that beer sales declined by about 10 percent owing to the coldwave in the twin cities. Over 6.30 lakh cases of beer were sold in the last two days in Hyderabad alone. Foreign liquor sales were to the tune of Rs 35crore as against Rs 15 crore in GHMC limits. The government had given approvals to over 57 event organizations for liquor sales during the programmes. Liquor sales on December 31 alone were more than Rs 130 crore as against Rs 107cr on December 31, 2018,” added the official.