State to launch app to spot fake booze

Mumbai: The state government is set to come up with an application “track and trace" that will help identify whether liquor is original or duplicate. Additionally, the app is expected to help plug revenue leakages worth Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 crore, annually. Consumers and shop owners can check the authenticity of the liquor through this app.

The move comes in the wake of duplicate and spurious liquor being sold in the garb of branded and original liquor.

Maharashtra excise minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule Wednesday said that a bar code system would be applied to every bottle of liquor in the state. The mobile application will scan the bar code of the bottle in order to identify whether the liquor is original or not.

An official of the excise department said that a tender for the track and trace system would be floated by August 2019. It would take close to six months to implement the app across the state.

The official explained that after scanning the bottle cap through the app, the consumers and shop owners would get all the information available regarding the manufacture of the bottle and the alcohol inside. Mr Bawankule said that all information pertaining to the bar code of the alcohol bottle i.e. factory, its owner, batch number etc. would be available for anyone to see.

Sources in the excise department said that the government lost revenue worth Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 crore every year owing to smuggling of liquor from different states.

Every bottle with bar code could be tracked from the factory to the liquor sale shop. Apart from this, customers could check through the app to identify spurious liquor and it would help stop sale of spurious liquor, the excise minister said. Once the app was put in place, there would be no leakages, which would help the state retrieve the lost revenue. He also said that power had been delegated for production and sale of liquor.