new delhi sitting on a liquor stockpile of around rs 3000 crore restaurants and hotels across the country are asking state governments to allow them to sell the stock lying with them due to the coronavirus lockdown we are truly living in unprecedented times where on one hand we are sitting with expensive liquor inventory and on the other hand we are cash starved national restaurant association of india nrai president anurag katriar said the industry sees a ray of hope as many states have permitted sales of retail alcohol we request every state government to allow us an opportunity to sell our liquor stocks preferably through home delivery model advt this will help us deplete our stocks raise some money to take care of urgent people needs and will still be compliant to social distancing norms we understand that this may require some amendments to the law but i am sure it can be carried out under the current extraordinary circumstances katriar said in similar vein the beer cafe founder and ceo rahul singh said liquor sales in india take place through three licenced verticals retail horeca hotels restaurants and catering and canteen stores department the total horeca licenced places are around 30000 in the country and at any given time the stock in hand would be for 1 month which means that due to lockdown the total unsold inventory lying at various horeca outlets across india would be around rs 3000 crore he added while retail sales of liquor are opening the service industry continues to be in limbo he said what we are asking the state governments is simple all we are asking is to allow us to sell our stock on a temporary basis we would like to sell our stock singh said every country in the world has done this and it is also needed to be done here he added at least allow us to sell this stock that is with us of around rs 3000 crore and get liquidity to pay wages and government should make temporary amendments to the rules it will also ease the queues at the retail outlets he added advt the supreme court had on may 8 asked states to consider nondirect contact or online sales and home delivery of liquor during the lockdown period to prevent the spread of coronavirus on account of crowding at the shops pti published on may 10 2020 at 1230 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etretail app get realtime updates save your favourite articles