Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Aug 26: Bar owners in the district have been battered by the restrictions placed on the marketing of liquor because of coronavirus. The business is down in the dumps as the liquor retailers are permitted to limit their business to take away parcels.

The district has 412 liquor shops including 212 bars. They remained closed from March 24 onward as per the government orders. Beginning from the first week of May this year, they have been allowed to introduce parcel service but the amount of business has dropped substantially. Most of the bar owners are in a dilemma as they can neither shut down their bars nor can properly conduct business.

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The bar owners rue the fact that the government has not yet permitted the people to consume liquor inside bars. They say that only 20 to 25 per cent business as compared to the previous period, is now being recorded. "The amount of eatables prepared and their sale have steeply declined. It has become very difficult to manage liquor stock and pay salaries to workers," they lament. They feel that they can survive and retain workers only if they are provided with some financial impetus besides permission to carry on their trade freely.

Smaller bars employ between 10 to 50 staff while star hotels provide employment to over 300 through direct and indirect employment. Most of the people employed in the bars are from other states, many of whom have not returned after they left in an exodus after lockdown. Those who stayed back are not getting proper work. M Ganesh Shetty, president of Dakshina Kannada Liquor Traders Association, noted that the owners of businesses have lost the financial strength to continue with the trade, having utilised all sale proceeds to pay salaries and meet other costs. In addition, he cites a shortage of labour as another problem. He wants the government to reduce taxes and extend financial help to bars so that their owners and workers can save themselves from doom. He also says that renewal of licences costs Rs 6.9 lac and many of the bar owners have not renewed their licences on account of financial crunch.