Liquor sale was earlier completely banned in the city, which is worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
The BMC on Friday issued orders allowing home delivery of alcohol during the lockdown; Per-sale is banned.
Deliveries will not be allowed in containment zones, or areas where a Covid-19 patient or his high-risk contacts live.
While the order allows shops to operate from Friday midnight, a retail liquor association said its members would only be able to implement it from Sunday as they passed excise duty to overtake employees, transport vehicles and collectors. is required. Shops can also tie up with e-commerce platforms for this purpose.
However, association president Arvind Miskin said currently there was no plan to join hands with e-commerce platforms as such a move might lead to customers having to pay more.
All other measures to prevent the outbreak of novel coronoviruses are in force, meaning that all malls, markets and premises will remain closed. Only shops selling essential goods will be allowed in markets and premises.
Sumit Chawala, a liquor vendor association vice-president and a shop owner, said shops had no intention of tying up with the e-commerce chains as there was more than enough staff and infrastructure with the retailers. “It will be like snatching their bread and butter if we tie-up,” he said.
The state government's May 12 order allowed home delivery that tippers may be asked to deliver liquor-barred native liquor to their home addresses from retail outlets in their neighborhood during the closing period.
In many cities, the facility came into effect a week ago. Only the city and Aurangabad were awaiting endorsement from their respective municipal commissioners.
The permission of the state government gave the impression that purchase orders should be placed only through phone calls or messages. Later, detailed guidelines suggested that e-commerce platforms would be allowed to form alliances with retailers and wholesalers, indicating a change in the online mechanism of placing orders.
The home delivery system promises prevention of crowding at liquor shops, helping the local administration ensure physical distancing.
The sale of liquor will help the excise ministry meet its revenue targets. Excise officials pegged the losses in March and April at Rs 1,800 crore.
To ensure that items like beer do not cross their sell-by date, the state excise allowed bars and permit rooms to sell their stock to either liquor shops or parcel customers during the lockdown. They may not, though, purchase new stock to sell in this manner.
Some liquor shops in parts of the state where across-the-counter-sale is allowed have implemented the e-token system, where the shop issues token numbers with fixed timings to the consumers through the phone or an app developed by liquor wholesalers. The consumers collect their stock in the time slot allotted for their token number.
The excise department mandated that delivery would be made to only those possessing drinking permits and the staff deployed for the delivery of liquor use a mask and hand sanitisers at frequent intervals.
It is mandatory for the delivery person to have a medical certificate of fitness duly signed by a doctor and possess an identity card.
It is the responsibility of owners to ensure that no contagious diseases spread through the delivery person and to take care of proper storage during transportation.
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