On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Madhu Menon <c...@shiokfood.com> wrote:
> > >> > > Since we're talking about my state, The Country God Gave Up On (tm), it > might interest you to know that the annual liquor licence fee there is Rs. > 2.2 million (22 Lakhs.) Bars there can't obviously charge the markup you see > in places like Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, etc. and despite that, lots of them > manage to stay in business. My dad's cousin, who owns two bars there, gets > sent on holidays to Australia, US, etc. every year thanks to the sales > volumes he delivers. (I think UB did it for selling 50000 cases of > Kingfisher.) That should give you an idea of how much Mallus love their > booze. > <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39295417270> There are only two types of cases that ever come out of Kerala. One, relating to education institutions - the right to establish them, freedom of the management to make decisions independent of govt intervention, etc. And two, liquor license matters. The Kerala Abkari Act is one of the most litigated legislation out there. People do make a lot of money particularly through toddy and arrack. There's an arbitrary (in my opinion) provision on the books in Kerala whereby the volume of ethanol in toddy cannot exceed 8.1%. Breach of this requirement is made a criminal offence. The frickin' thing ferments by itself and easily cross 8.1%, going up to 12%. In effect, a toddy seller wouldn't know when he's committed an offence.
