According to a report in Spirits Business , India is in “advanced talks” to move into alcohol e-commerce for the first time. The channel would run alongside licensed bricks-and-mortar stores and the country’s “thriving” e-tailer platforms, which currently cannot offer alcohol. The move “may help provide tax income for Indian states, while also avoiding overcrowding in and around the currently licensed outlets which has been in evidence when some shops reopened”.
Meanwhile home delivery of alcohol has already been permitted by several Indian states, some of which were listed in this GQ India article. Vice India published reports on how long lines began forming outside liquour stores across India as stores opened up and it became impossible to maintain safe physical distancing recommendations. These concerns and the hit on tax revenue (spirits have high taxes and imported spiritis are also subject to additional import duties) opened the door to home delivery and perhaps to long term e-commerce for this category.
