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Our Bureau

Chennai , Oct. 26

THE Tamil Nadu Government has decided to do away with private retail trade in liquor and grant exclusive privilege of retail vending to the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation, a Government agency, and the co-operatives.

The Government has promulgated an Ordinance to this effect, according to an official press release.

This decision, according to the release, has been taken to eliminate the cartels from distorting the retail trade, and to prevent the sale of contraband, non-duty paid and spurious liquor. The move is also aimed at preventing malpractices like violation of maximum retail price indulged in by the private retailers, all of which ultimately affect the public and the State's revenues, according to the release.

The release said that private retailers had been indulging in various malpractices in the sale of liquor. The Government had taken steps to prevent these malpractices and had announced a new system of selecting applicants based on merit for the Excise Year 2003-04 to run retail shops. The Government had prescribed that only one licence be given to an applicant in an attempt to break cartels.

Despite the fact that a large number of persons had purchased application forms, only a few completed applications had been received by October 13, which was the deadline set for submitting the forms. Even though this date had been extended to October 22, "there were still a large number of shops for which no applications had been filed, clearly indicating that the cartels were again active with the specific intent of controlling the retail market," the release said.

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