App to tell tipplers if their booze is genuine

App to tell tipplers if their booze is genuine
Checking the genuineness of alcohol at liquor shops will be a matter of a tap in the coming months. The excise department has plans to come up with a mobile app that will ensure that tipplers in the state are not deprived of original stuff.

The app will match information like name of the manufacturing unit, batch and case numbers, etc on the bottles with the data provided by breweries to the government. In case of a mismatch, it will alert the customer indicating that the alcohol is spurious.

Under its track-and-trace policy, the excise department will ask manufacturers to paste holograms and print barcodes on booze bottles. “The moment bottles are ready for despatch, the information contained in the holograms and barcodes will be fed into our servers,” Excise Commissioner Vijay Singhal told Mirror.

The senior official said the mobile app, which will be ready by the end of this year, will scan the hologram on a bottle and send the information to the department’s server.

“If it matches with our records, the consumer will get a message saying that the bottle is genuine. If it doesn’t match, he will be told that the bottle either contains spurious liquor or tampered with to mix lower quality liquor.”

Singhal said the move is aimed at cutting down flow of adulterated alcohol to the market. “Spurious alcohol can be harmful to customers. It also causes losses to the state exchequer.”

According to estimates by the department, nearly 15 to 20 per cent of liquor sold in the state is spurious. During financial year 2015-16, the state earned a revenue of Rs 12, 274 core through excise duty. Between April and June of this year, the excise collection stood at nearly Rs 3, 000 crore.

For those without a smartphone

In case someone doesn’t have a smartphone, customers can simply SMS the digits on the barcode to a designated number, which will be prominently displayed at retail outlets. “Within minutes, he will get a confirmation on whether the liquor is genuine or not,” said Singhal said.

The department has floated tenders for holograms. “August 2 is the last date to submit the bids. The company which will be providing the holograms will be also responsible for developing mobile app.”