Brewers Seek Govt Nod to Increase Prices of Beer

Hyderabad:The Brewers Association of India has appealed to the state government to immediately allow beer companies to enhance prices, which was last revised in 2019, given the problems they have been facing due to inflation. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, BAI director general Vinod Giri said, “The current basic prices allowed to beer supplier companies in Telangana are based on 2019 costs. This has made operations in Telangana commercially unsustainable and future investments unviable.” Recognizing the urgent need to increase supplier prices for beer, the incumbent state government had set up a price fixation committee in July and directed all beer companies operating in the state to submit their proposal for revised declared prices that is the price at which companies supply beer to the state government. Suppliers have been permitted price increase only twice in the last seven years-nine per cent-11 per cent in 2018 and 5.5 per cent-7.5 percent in 2022 which, with due indexing, is a net increase of 16-18 percent over last seven years, whereas the average cost of beer production has gone up by 45-50 percent over the same period as per the Wholesale Price Index data from the Union government.” BAI says that average cost of production has gone up by 35-40 per cent since the previous revision. This is coming on top of the massive delays in payments by the government for the supplies made, which has made operations in the state commercially unsustainable.” The association stated that in keeping with its reputation for being a progressive and business friendly state, the government should allow free pricing and permit companies to determine prices of their beer products as per the costs and brand demand, as is the practice in Karnataka and Maharashtra.