SHILLONG: Meghalaya Assembly today witnessed a debate revolved around locally brewed rice beer versus India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) as a section of legislators advocated for legalising the local brew to contribute towards revenue and employment generation.
The deliberation on the issue started on a subtle note with Mawphlang, MLA, S K Sunn seeking to know rates of the different brands of IMFL sold in the state and respective slabs of excise duty and revenue collected from the Excise Minister, Kyrmen Shylla on Tuesday.
The Excise Minister replied that the revenue collected by the department from excise duty on IMFL during 2017-2018 was 199.30 crore, 2018-2019 was 226.21 crore, 2019-2020 was 276.27 crore and ,2020 up to January 2021 268.79 crore.
The Mawphlang MLA then asked whether there had been any complaints regarding the revenue collection to which the Excise Minister replied there was none and everyone is happy with the collection.
Sunn then questioned the difference between rum (IMFL) consumption and rice consumption which prompted Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to intervene saying that the discussion was being led to a different trajectory as rum is liquor and its consumption is optional while rice is a staple food of the state.
Sunn countered stating that his point is rice produced in plenty in the State and why don’t the State government allows legalisation of local brew from fermented rice and generate revenue and employment.
The Chief Minister clarified that Meghalaya produces about 3 lakh metric tons of rice per year while it consumes 4 lakh metric tons per year.
“There is a clear shortage of 1 lakh metric ton of rice required by the state and keeping that in mind if we were to divert rice and push it for brewery it will affect availability of the primary and staple diet,” he said.
Arguing that it might just be possible, Sunn questioned if such was the case then how could coal be supplied to coke factories in Shallang from outside the State.
He suggested the same technique could be adopted and rice could be supplied for the local brewery from outside the State.
Replying, the Chief Minister agreed that it was a good suggestion and said the government would examine it.