In the tug-of-war between India’s states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government for cash to fight the coronavirus outbreak, liquor has become the latest battleground.
A well-known teetotaler, Modi banned alcohol sales during the country’s national lockdown to contain the virus, blocking a crucial source of direct tax income for states already struggling to ramp up health infrastructure and provide food to millions left jobless. The loss of liquor tax revenues — an estimated 7 billion rupees ($92 million) a day — have prompted calls from states like Punjab to lift the ban.
"Liquor is a major source of revenue for all states,” Amarinder Singh, Punjab’s chief minister from the federal opposition Congress party, said in a television interview last week. "How will I make up for that? Will the people in Delhi give it to me? They don’t even give 1 rupee.”