Delhi shops may soon run out liquor as govt portal malfunctions

“The portal had hardly worked this year… It was completely shut in the first two weeks of September… Then it was revived for a week… It has again stopped worked since the last five to six 6 days…,” said an industry insider, adding that as retailers are facing difficulties in placing orders, liquor is not available in many stores in Delhi.

“Factories have delivered stocks at warehouses but cannot supply because the entire process of ordering and dispatch is done through the portal,” the insider said.

In Delhi, the entire process – from placing orders, importing, getting transport permits, dispatching to tracking of liquor sale is done and monitored online through ESCIMS portal, which was launched in 2012-2013.

Through ESCIMS, the excise department regulates liquor trade without promoting it, mobilises revenue generation under multiple heads of taxation, and tracks each case and bottle right from the distillery to the warehouse and vendors.

Since the launch, the portal was outsourced to Tata Consultancy Services for automating and regulating liquor sales. However, the agreement between the company and the department expired this March. Following this, the department has been managing the portal itself with a team of in-house technical experts.

Delhi has more than 684 government-run liquor vends under Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation, Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation and Delhi Consumer’s Cooperative Wholesale Store (DCCWS), besides premium vends and microbreweries.

A senior official from one of the four government corporations that operate and monitor liquor vends in Delhi, said, “The corporations place orders weekly. For instance, DCCWS places orders every week for approx 3.5 lakh cartons of whisky and beer… But now, with the portal not working, most of the shops have no liquor and are managing with old stock that will run out in a few days.”

The official added that this is resulting in huge revenue loss for both the department and the stakeholders involved in the business. “If the portal is not revived in a week, Delhi liquor vends will not have any liquor to sell…,” said another official.

A worker at a premium liquor vend said, “We are managing with old stocks but beer and whisky are available as of now.”

A senior excise department official said the portal is currently under maintenance. “We are maintaining the portal in-house but there are some technical issues… Some components needed to resolve the issue are not available. The department is facing challenges in sourcing them… We are helpless but the department is trying to resolve the technical glitch and revive the portal soon.”

Further, the official said the department is working on developing a new software under the e-Abgari system – that tracks and regulates the sale and distribution of liquor in India – through the National Informatics Centre. “Once this software is ready, there will be enough storage systems… e-Abgari system has been implemented in other states and customised as per their requirements,” the official said.

On a normal day, Delhi sees liquor worth Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh being sold on an average. This increases to Rs 20 lakh during the festival season. Last year, Delhiites consumed alcohol worth over Rs 100 crore prior to Diwali and Durga Puja.

According to a government data, in 2023, between October last week to November 9, liquor bottles worth Rs 2,58,19,988 crore were sold in the wine shops of Delhi.