More water to liquor? What will an LDF govt in Kerala do?

If the Assembly elections of May 16 deliver the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to power, will they dilute the Congress-led government’s liquor policy?

It just might - if one were to heed to hints dropped by senior leaders of the CPI(M), which heads the LDF, and leaks from the bloc’s election manifesto, which is scheduled to be released on April 21.

The incumbent United Democratic Front (UDF) government had in 2014 revised its policy, the highlight of which is a ban on bars except those attached to five-star hotels.

Against the backdrop of Bihar going dry, liquor, along with corruption, is set to be an important campaign issue for both the UDF and the LDF in the Kerala elections.

Abandoning the LDF’s vagueness about the liquor policy, Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) Politburo member and a possible chief ministerial candidate, has clarified that the front stands for abstinence and not prohibition. “Prohibition is not practicable; it will bring in a lot of harm in its wake,” he told the media at Kannur on Wednesday. “We stand for abstinence.” Echoing Vijayan’s stand, CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that if the LDF wins the election, it would review the liquor policy annually.

Their remarks were in response to Oommen Chandy’s taunts on the LDF’s vagueness. Chandy, on the other hand, counts the ban on bars as among the top achievements of his government.

In a surprise move in 2014, the Chief Minister closed down the 700-odd bars in the State, except those attached to five-star hotels. On Thursday, Chandy criticised the LDF for fighting for the bar lobby’s interests instead of the working class’.

However, the government-owned liquor monopoly, the Beverages Corporation, has been allowed to retail Indian-made foreign liquor. The UDF has made the liquor policy its main campaign plank, along with ‘development’.

Alcohol is a sensitive issue in Kerala which is one of India’s highest per capita consumers of alcohol.

“The closure of bars has not reduced liquor consumption much,” says Jose Sebastian, of Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation. “In fact, the total revenue from liquor has increased,” he told BusinessLine . Liquor continues to be among the four top contributors to the government’s tax kitty along with petroleum, lottery and new motor vehicles, he pointed out.

The liquor trade hopes the LDF will relax the current liquor policy, though there will not be an outright lifting of the ban on bars. “My hunch is that the LDF government will let bars attached to three- and four-star hotels function,” Biju Ramesh, Working President of the Kerala Bar Hotel Owners Association, told BusinessLine .