Is the Government of India taking steps to delink beer and wine from alcoholic spirits?
A Joint Working Group headed by A.N.P. Sinha, a senior bureaucrat in the Union Ministry for Food Processing Industries has recently made a non-binding recommendation that wine and beer be given “preferential treatment”. But the Group has to take a call on the degree of preference that will be granted to beer and wine after getting feedback from the industry. The Group has recommended that wine be granted preferential treatment in terms of licensing of manufacture, along with sales tax and import duty concessions. Its other suggestion is that states and union territories must encourage wine parks and wine production units in their regions.
