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The government of Kerala is planning to restrict illegal sale of ‘arishtams’ and ‘aasavams’ (spirituous preparations- SP) through unlicensed ayurvedic retail shops in order to prevent proliferation of illicit liquor under the pretext of Ayurveda medicines. As part of this plan, the chief minister of the state has recently called a meeting of excise officers and manufacturers & traders of Ayurveda medicines and took several crucial decisions.
In future, arishtams and aasavams will be sold only through recognized (licensed) retail outlets. For this, the retail shops/ayurvedic clinics need to take SP 7 licence. For wholesale business, the doctor/manufacturer should possess the SP 6 licence. Both these licences are issued by the excise department. The Kerala Spirituous Preparations (Control) Rules, which complements the Kerala Abkari Act 1966, regulates the manufacture and sale of all spirituous preparations.
According to the deliberations of the Chief Minister’s committee, the Ayush secretary will prepare a list of recognized dealers after consulting with the licensed manufacturers. Following it, he will submit the list to the government. Finally the list will reach the state excise department which will issue the licences on demand by recognized dealers.
Earlier the SP 6 and SP 7 licences were given to all those who were possessing manufacturing licences. From now on, strict governmental interferences will be there in the sale of arishtams and aasavams. The secretary of department of Ayush, Kerala has already wanted the manufacturers to send the list of their recognized agents to his office. This will help the Ayush secretary to identify the recognized dealers in each district.
Previously, a manufacturer could sell his products through several agency outlets under one SP 6 and SP 7 licence. In the changing scenario, if a company wants to sell its products through different agency outlets, it has to take as much number of licences separately for each outlet/retail shop.
In the present set up, no sale licence is required to procure and sell spirituous preparations (arishtams and aasavams) through retail shops as they are categorized as traditional medicines.
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