The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government has apparently realised that his decision to increase the liquor prices abnormally thinking that it would discourage boozers to stop consuming alcohol has backfired.
Instead of making the boozers stop consuming the liquor, the decision only resulted in increased smuggling of alcohol from the neighbouring states like Telangana and sale of spurious liquor.
What is worse, the alcohol addicts started taking to consumption of hand sanitisers in the absence of liquor and in view of the high liquor prices.
So, finally on Thursday, Jagan decided to roll back liquor prices to some extent. The prices of alcohol brands costing less than Rs 150 a bottle have been reduced. Similarly, the prices of beer and wine, which are ready to consume, have also been brought down.
However, the prices of Indian Made Foreign Liquor, rum and other hard liquor, which cost more than Rs 190 to Rs 600 per 90 ML, have been increased.
The government thinks that this would discourage upper middle class alcohol consumers from boozing, but unfortunately, these are the brands which are being smuggled from other states.
It may be mentioned that the state government had increased the liquor prices by 75 per cent in the post-lockdown period so as to discourage people from consuming alcohol.
However, it has only resulted in large scale smuggling of liquor from across the borders, particularly from Telangana.
There were also reports of sale of spurious liquor and locally-made alcohol, which has resulted not only in a dent in the revenues of the state but also leading to health problems among the addicts.
And there have been reports of the boozers consuming cheaply available sanitisers which has led to the death of nearly 40 people across the state till now.