NATIONAL8 (Spotlight Weekly]

Under Threat

After education and tourism, the liquor and beverage industry has come under the shadow of shutdown

By A CORRESPONDENT

Following the disruptions in private schools and the tourism sector, it’s the turn of the liquor and beverage industry. A radical group has call for a ban on the sale of liquor and beverages from August 17, casting doubts on the future of the industry

Called by the All Nepal Women Association-Revolutionary (ANWA-R), an organization affiliated to the CPN-Maoists, the liquor and beverage ban will affect the livelihoods of more than 100,000 Nepalis.

A stack of alcoholic drinks : Uncertainty

Nobody can predict how various ethnic communities, where liquor is a part of social and cultural life, will respond to the call. Nevertheless, it has sent a wave of uncertainty in the industrial and investment sector. As the festival season has already begun in Kathmandu valley, banning the sale of liquor is bound to create great inconvenience to different ethnic communities.

The disturbances in private schools and the tourism industry have already forced hundred of employees, Nepali and foreigners, to be laid off. The liquor threat will increase the number of unemployed people. Along with 100,000 workers, uncertainty in the liquor industry will affect the livelihoods of another hundreds of thousands of people who indirectly benefit from it.

"It is impossible to operate the industry in such a erratic situation. If we cannot find an amicable solution through negotiations, then we would be compelled to close all liquor and beverage industries," says industrialist Rajendra Khetan. "In fact, we have already initiated official procedures to close the industries. We want a solution before August 18."

The investment in the liquor industry is around Rs 10 billion. The sector provides about Rs 7 billion in annual revenues to the government. If there is any disruption, the treasury would see a drastic depletion. Banning liquor and beverages is one of the 22 demands presented by the ANWA-R to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba two weeks ago. The women’s group sees the unbridled sale of liquor and beverages as the source of many social problems.

As women activists have already attacked small shopkeepers and restaurants in the valley, there is a sense of panic pervading among the dealers and retailers of beverages and liquor. According to the president of the Drinks and Cigarette Industry Association Ramesh Shrestha, industries have been receiving cancellation orders from different parts of the country. "The industries have already cut down production in the last few weeks."

There is no doubt that open sale of liquor and beverages has created problems in society, as many young and school-going children have developed the habit of consumption. Realizing the need to regularize the sale of liquor and beverage, parliament has passed a bill giving sweeping power to officials to control sales.

Because of dilly-dallying in the implementation of the act, other political parties have found the issue to their advantage. Although the ANWA-R has already launched its campaign against all kinds of liquor, including the sale of domestic brew, they are yet to clarify their stand on the industries.

If the government and concerned parties do not agree to certain conditions in time, Nepal's liquor and beverage industries will have no choice but to close down. Once the factories are closed, many other sectors, including packing, paper and sugar mills, would be severely affected.

"We are ready to hold talks on ways of minimizing social anomalies, but how can one justify a movement that would destroy country's economy?" asks Khetan. Other industrialists and the government, too, support the need to regularize the sale of liquor and beverages.

"The government is committed to implement the new act to regulate the sale of the liquor," says Lal Mani Joshi, deputy director of the government’s VAT and Tax Department.

From tourism to carpets and now liquor and beverages, Nepalese industries are on the verge of closure. If things remain unchanged, the day is not far off when foreign brands would replace indigenous products of all kinds.