Tipplers' delight! Pre-book your fav liquor online, sip later at restro-bars
Kolkata: Soon, city tipplers can book liquor of their choice online and later enjoy the same at their favourite restro-bars or licensed foreign liquor "on" shops.
The unique feature will become available in Bengal as part of an initiative undertaken by the West Bengal State Beverages Corporation Limited (Bevco). The state's sole liquor distributor, Bevco, invited expression of interest (EoI) from App-based online aggregator platform service providers to "act as a reservation portal for pre-booking alcoholic drinks with or without food" by "consumers of legal drinking age" from licensed partner bars attached to restaurants and hotels and "on" shops. Once the process to engage the App-based service providers is completed, one can log into the online platform containing names of enrolled "licensed bars" for "advance booking of liquor". The booking details will be shared with both the "partner bar" and the customer. The uniqueness of the project is a virtual "liquor vault" or "wallet" (quite similar to that available in different payment apps) against each customer, who may consume the "pre-booked liquor on multiple occasions and at multiple outlets of the same category". One can easily check the quantity remaining available out of the total "pre-booked" liquor after every visit to an outlet in their mobile phone itself using an online "vault or wallet" that will be made available in the app.
There will also be an option available using which one can also "pre-book" liquor at a licensed outlet for his or her guest, attending "legal drinking age". Bevco has clearly stated in a notice dated December 28 that the service provided "shall develop and deploy an algorithm which will fluctuate the price of liquor as per demand and supply on "live basis" and partner outlets should be able to fix the minimum price for liquor. It may be recalled that the state government had allowed home delivery of liquor against online booking during lockdown and e-commerce giants including Big Basket, Amazon, Swiggy and Zomato were roped in for the same.
The state government had also introduced the new excise taxation policy a few months ago. Subsequently, the excise revenue generation has witnessed a growth of around 15 to 20 per cent compared to that of the corresponding period in the last year. Earlier, the monthly excise revenue generation used to be around Rs 900 crore per month that has now gone up to around Rs 1,100 crore.
