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Our Bureau

Kochi , Aug. 22

"THERE are liquor bars attached to hotels and hotels attached to bars," says Mr Jose Dominic, Managing Director of the CGH group of hotels.

The reference is obviously to the seedy watering holes mushrooming across Kerala's landscape, where some basic, often rudimentary facilities have to be ensured to obtain the licence to serve liquor.

With immense turnover and bare facilities, the seedy bars have been doing roaring business and raking in the cash. For them, a licence fee of Rs 15 lakh a year often proves to be an incidental expenditure, well within their grasp.

By contrast, the liquor bars in the elegant hotels have often not proved to be a major draw. With their elegant décor and small clientele, some of them have been finding the licence fee, too stiff for their liking.

But serving liquor being a pre-condition to good hospitality, there is no way that these bulwarks of the tourism sector can overlook this basic amenity.

But what has caught their ire is the reported move on the part of the Government to increase the licence fee from the current Rs 15 lakh to Rs 18 lakh. The earlier fee was a flat basic fee of Rs 15 lakh, over which you pay additional amounts depending on the turnover.

Now, there are moves to introduce a flat fee of Rs 18 lakh and remove the additional fee based on the turnover, sources in the hospitality industry said.

"This will be a mere appeasement of the liquor lobby and would work against the hospitality industry," the sources said.

More Stories on : Breweries | Kerala

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