Maharashtra, which has the biggest market for wine and spirits, had imposed an additional excise duty of 200% on whisky and 150% on wines since July 9, 2007 after the central government had reduced the customs duty on wine and spirits to 150% and beer was left untouched at 100%.

In a shocking turn of events after the 'Bombay Club' met the excise officials, the excise duty on wines was further jacked up to 200% while for premium whiskies it was actually brought down from 200% to 75%! Drop Wine-Drink Whisky seems to be the slogan pushed implicitly by an otherwise pro-active Maharashtra.

During a chat with Amrit Kiran Singh, I asked him whether things could get more absurd than this, he said,' You don't know how hard we had to work to get it reduced. We had to convince them that otherwise bootlegging would be rampant. We requested them to give a 6-month trial and watch the duty collection shoot up. The records show that the duty collection has already gone up by 100%,' he says with a smirk.

We all know about the various lobbies and incentives that work in the Indian system. Apparently, the lobbying and the financial power of whisky producers was rather strong and they made an offer 'the government could not refuse.'

At the end of the day, who suffers? The whisky sellers like Diageo, Brown Forman and even the wild card White Mackay have plenty to gain, though outwardly they might mourn the death of fine wines of their portfolios.

Wine importers are only in the business to make money. They are already diversifying into beer, liquor imports, olive oil or other products that would make them stay afloat.

It is the middle class mumbaikers and other maharashtrians who had started enjoying the taste of decent wines, who would be deprived of the access to decent wine. And if other states imbibe the Maharashtra style of excise duties, we would revert back to a nation of whisky drinkers as we already are identified in the outside world or consigned to drinking cheap imported wines or the expensive cheap Indian wine, a few glaring exceptions notwithstanding.

There is also a string possibility that bootlegging and smuggling will become more rampant in Maharashtra. One often hears of Dubai being an indirect supplier of many high-duty, luxury products. Dubai does differentiate between caste, colour or creed but concentrates only on cash. Knowledgeable people assure me that I should not be pessimistic for the Maharashtrans as its denizens will not be deprived for long and soon will have access to fine wines thanks to these resources.

Subhash Arora
January 23, 2008