Hoarded liquor worth Rs 10L seized in Guntur

Vijayawada: As the wine dealers are on a war path with the government over profit margin issue and have stopped buying new stocks, few people are resorting to hoarding the stocks and selling the

liquor

at exorbitant prices. Excise sleuths have busted one such racket at Rentachintala in Guntur district on Saturday where the perpetrators were charging Rs 50 extra on every liquor bottle and Rs 40 more for each beer bottle.

Upon having specific input over Sravani Wines, the excise cops conducted raids on a warehouse where the liquor bottles were hoarded and were being sold in an unauthorised way at the warehouse. They seized 3,380 liquor bottles and 6,976 beer bottles that worth Rs 10 lakh from the warehouse. The excise enforcement director K Venkateswara Rao told that action is being taken on Obulashetty Lakshmi Narayana who owns Sravani Wines and Jakkampudi Vasu the authorised seller in the shop.

As the wine dealers across the state have stopped buying liquor from the government depots since last four days, stocks are nearing completion. At many places, however, some greedy wine shop owners resorting to hoarding of the stocks and selling it at higher prices. As the stalemate over increase of profit margin continues, existing stocks in the shops are likely to go dry in another two to three days. While the average daily sales across the state was about Rs 55 crore, on Saturday wine dealers bought Rs 9 crore worth of stocks across the state.