Digital divide bridged in liquor shops

Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surgical strike on black money unwittingly helps in bridging the digital divide in liquor sales in Andhra Pradesh.

With the big notes withdrawn as part of the PM’s war on black money leading to acute liquidity crisis, tipplers have no go except using digital mode of transactions across the State.

Y Bhaskara Rao, Deputy Commissioner, Excise and Prohibition Department, West Godavari told The Hans India that the daily sales through digital transactions have been hovering around Rs 4 lakh - one per cent of the total sales from the district.

Before the ban on big notes, the liquor business was completely dependent on cash transactions. Bhaskar Rao said PayTM, AP Purse, USB devices were installed in all the outlets in West Godavari district.

Collector Katamneni Bhaskar has been making efforts to provide M PoS to all the 495 outlets in the district in a day or two.

A similar trend is witnessed in Prakasam district also. A Circle Inspector from the department on condition of anonymity said the sales in each bar with e-PoS machines have shot up to Rs 35,000-40,000 per day.

“In fact, more than 60 per cent of 30 bars in the district have been equipped with the e- PoS machines much before demonetisation.

The sales failed to cross Rs 5,000 in each bar in pre-demonitisation period”, the CI explained. The liquor shops had complete cash sale until the ban on big notes which necessitated digital transactions.

Interestingly, the data on the CM’s dashboard reveals that the liquor sales up to December 15 registered an upward trend over the previous year in all the districts, barring Vizianagaram. Nellore topped the sales with 31 per cent increase over 21 per cent last year.

The trend indicates that the liquor business developed resilience from the currency shock after the promotion of digital transactions by government agencies, Excise and Prohibition Commissioner MK Meena however said the liquor business along with excise revenue for the government was badly affected over all due to the demonetisation effect.

The department earned Rs.77 crore less in November 2016 compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. He felt the impact of demonetisation may continue for a few more weeks.

Meena informed that a drive was launched with assigning the department personnel to insure cashless transactions in all the liquor outlets across the State with periodic inspections.

The digital transactions are expected to gather momentum once online payment gateways are ensured in all the outlets.