Maharashtra Makes Hologram, Barcode Must on Liquor Bottles

Due to the menace of spurious liquor, state Excise department proposed to make it necessary for all liquor bottles.

(Photo: iStock)

Maharashtra government on Monday made it mandatory to have a ‘track and trace’ mechanism, and hologram on liquor bottles to ensure the stuff inside is genuine. In order to know if the liquor bottle is genuine or fake, all one will need is a barcode scan from mobile phone.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. To root out the menace of spurious liquor, the state Excise department proposed to make it mandatory for all liquor bottles to carry a hologram and barcode with embedded covert and overt features.

This will enable a “track and trace mechanism,” which will follow the journey of the beverage from the manufacturer to the final point of sale and also reveal its authenticity to consumers and officials, an official said. Retailers will have to stock special lenses so that consumers can read the covert security features on the hologram, invisible to the naked eye, and thus verify the brew’s authenticity.

The hologram cannot be replicated or reused and will also reveal if the liquor is duty-evaded or smuggled, he added. Scanning the barcode will enable consumers to know when and where the liquor was manufactured and when it was sent from the distillery to the wholesaler and further to the retailer and if it is an original or a fake, he said. The move is expected to eliminate duplicate and spurious liquor.

Maharashtra Cabinet also decided to implement ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna’, new crop insurance scheme in the state to boost farming sector. There will be uniform premium of 2 percent for all Kharif crops and 1.5 percent for all Rabi crops, and 5 percent in case of annual commercial and horticultural crops. The use of technologies like smart phone, remote sensing will be encouraged in this scheme to reduce the delays on settlement of claims.