Hyderabad: The state that was dry less than two decades ago, is preparing to get high. Over 25,000 applicants, about 6000 of them new, have bid to open liquor shops in Andhra Pradesh. The auction will bring in Rs 4000 crore immediately into a nearly empty state exchequer.
For Subhash Chandra, it is celebration time after a battle won. He has won the bid for a liquor outlet in Secunderabad for another two years. He has absolutely no regrets that he has had to shell out Rs 1.35 crore for it. After all, this is arguably the most lucrative business opportunity. "Every two years there is an auction and we don't know if we will come back or not. We are investing a lot of money and we feel insecure, whether we will get it or not,'' he says, explaining the euphoria.
The tough competition just got tougher with so many new applicants for licences for 6,500 liquor outlets in Andhra Pradesh. This time the bid amount for the auction too is set at about 15 per cent more than that two years ago.
Pranay Yadav, a first time applicant, says: "The bidding amount is very high, it runs into crores and at the end of the day, you have to earn out of it.''
In the very competitive space, women comprise 10 per cent of the bidders, a far cry from the 1990s when a women's agitation brought prohibition to Andhra Pradesh.
Anti-liquor groups may gather for their symbolic protests, but the state government is grinning as it mops up the Rs 4000 crore, the highest from liquor anywhere in the country. But D.A.Somayajulu, Economic Advisor to AP government does say, "It contributes only 7-8 per cent of the total revenue and it is not correct to premise that the state government is only surviving because of income from excise."