Chilled beer to be available in 2,000 more TASMAC outlets

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government on Friday said it has allocated Rs 7 crore for supply of beer bottle coolers to 2,000 more state-run liquor retail outlets. With this, a total of 4,500 retail outlets run by Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), the sole retailer of Indian Made Foreign Liquor in the state, would have the cooler facility, Prohibition and Excise Minister Natham R Viswanathan said in the state Assembly.

TASMAC operates around 6,800 IMFL retail outlets in the state. The Minister also announced a hike in the salaries of employees working in the TASMAC outlets. The supervisors, salesmen and assistant salesmen, working in these outlets would get Rs 500, Rs 400 and Rs 300 respectively, in addition to their consolidated pay, Viswanathan said. With an eye on checking flow of illegal liquor into the state, the government has allocated Rs 1.24 crore for providing CCTV - Internet Protocol Camera in 15 important checkposts in inter-state borders and to install a central server at the Enforcement Headquarters, he said. Intending to expand TASMAC`s infrastructure, the government would construct two liquor storage godowns in Tiruvannamalai and Krishnagiri at a cost of Rs eight crore, he added.