Five months after introducing the Excise Policy 2024-25, the UT Excise and Taxation Department has partially rolled out a new system to fight interstate liquor smuggling. This policy marks the first time the department is using a comprehensive track and trace system to monitor the entire liquor supply chain.
Under this system, each liquor bottle gets a unique QR code at the production stage. Both individual bottles and their cases will have these codes, allowing stakeholders to verify their source and track their distribution by scanning them.
An official mentioned that the system is currently being applied to new stock and will take about two weeks to be fully operational. Licensees have been warned that no liquor stock can move without following this new system. A mobile app has been developed to help verify the authenticity of liquor bottles by scanning their QR codes.
