While boosting the dormant grain-based alcohol industry in Maharashtra, the state is looking at overcoming likely fluctuations in supply of molasses-based spirit for liquor manufacturers owing to distilleries diverting their stocks to oil marketing companies (OMCs) for blending ethanol in petrol. Grain-based spirit is usually manufactured from maize and poor-quality or broken rice and jowar in Maharashtra. The proposed policy will cover country liquor (CL) and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL).
“Most of the grain-based distilleries in Maharashtra are shut. To revive them, we are planning to make it mandatory for liquor manufacturers to blend a certain percentage of grain-based spirits. The import duty on grain-based alcohol imported from other states will also be increased from the present ₹2 per litre to boost local industry,” said a senior state government official.
