Chennai sources have stated that the recent decision of Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Ltd (TASMAC) to curtail the working hours of its outlets has had no impact on sales, inquiries revealed and the TASMAC, which is a government owned company, has a monopoly over wholesale and retail vending of liquor in the State.
A Manager at an outlet in Anna Nagar has concurred that people stand in queue by 11 am and when the shop opens at 12 pm, there is a huge crowd in front of the counters and the TASMAC outlet at Chintadripet market had seen its sales fall by 20% in June, but the staff there has said that sales have stabilized and the per day revenue is anywhere between Rs. 2 lakh and Rs. 2.2 lakh.
The Managing Director of TASMAC when asked for sales figures after the change in working hours and winding up of 500 retail vending shops, TASMAC, in reply to an RTI query filed by The Hindu has said the details are under audit and to another query on revenue details of the 500 shops that has downed shutters.
Meanwhile an union member has added that earlier, sales data was made available on a day to day basis, but for the last two months, the figures are being kept under wraps, unless the statistics are revealed, one cannot say whether the cutting down of time has really helped.
