BJP State president Daggubati Purandeswari has said that the Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited (APSBCL) is making 74% of the liquor procurement from 16 out of 100-plus companies registered with it, to benefit the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leaders, who have “forcibly taken over the distilleries” and flooded the market with their own brands.
Addressing the mediapersons at the State party office here on October 25, Ms. Purandeswari alleged that YSRCP MPs P.V. Midhun Reddy and V. Vijay Sai Reddy were behind the S.P.Y. Agro Distilleries (SPYAD) and Adan Distillery Private Limited (ADPL) respectively.
Apart from this, only cash payments were being accepted at the liquor shops in spite of the availability of multiple digital payment options. It facilitated the siphoning of a sizeable chunk of the revenue earned, she alleged.
As the liquor mafia was causing a huge loss to the State exchequer, Ms. Purandeswari said she had submitted a memorandum to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her visit to Andhra Pradesh a couple of days ago, seeking a probe into the liquor scam by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) or the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the Income-Tax Department.
Ms. Purandeswari said the APSBCL had procured liquor worth ₹1,863 crore from SPYAD and ₹1,165 crore from ADPL. The procurement made from SNK Distilleries and SNK Sugars stood at ₹1,996 crore. These were among the 16 companies with which the APSBCL placed bulk orders, she said.
The BJP leader recalled that it was on October 2, 2019, that the State government had decided to bring the liquor business under its control, and accordingly assigned the task of liquor procurement to the APSBCL, which supplied to the outlets under different brand names.
The other companies from which procurement was being done on a large scale were MS Biotech Private Limited, JR Associates, BRK Spirits, Pearl Distilleries, Puducherry Leela Distilleries, Radico Khaitan, Eagle Distilleries, Sarvani Alok Breweries, Sentini Bio Products, Amber Spirits and BDH Agro Ventures.
As some of these companies did not have own distilleries, they took the distilleries of others on sublease by force, and the brands made by them were of substandard quality causing life-threatening diseases like liver cirrhosis, Ms. Purandeswari alleged.
