Hero Image

Kerala: Hiccups over, firm promises glitch-free BevQ by Tuesday

Thiruvavnanthapuram: After the near ‘ dry run ’ of the first two days, liquor started flowing in state with BevQ application coming to its own. The crowd management app issued approximately three lakh tokens on Saturday.

Faircode Technologies, the startup which developed the app, said multiple service providers were engaged for sending SMS to consumers, and this has done away with the delay in users receiving one-time passwords (OTPs).



However, excise department sources said complaints that the app is allotting users slots in faraway outlets and that it is not allowing them to choose another outlet if a particular drink or brand is not available in the outlet allotted to them continue to pour in. “The application takes into account the pin code entered by a user to allot an outlet. If slots are full under one pin code, it automatically chooses the next pin code. But adjacent pin codes do not mean adjacent locations,” they said.

Faircode is learnt to have assured the government of a fool-proof system by Tuesday. Sunday and Monday have been declared as dry days. The government is also set to amend section 4A of the foreign liquor rules to allow clubs to reopen and sell liquor to their members from Tuesday.

Sale of IMFL through military and paramilitary canteens also resumed on Saturday. The government’s go-ahead came following excise commissioner S Aananthakrishnan’s recommendation, in the wake of the Centre relaxing lockdown restrictions.

There are five central police canteens (CPCs) in the state — two which cater to the BSF and three for the CRPF. While the capital has one canteen each, there are two CRPF canteens in Kannur and Kozhikode, while the BSF has one in Thrissur.

The combined defence forces have 36 canteen stores department (CSD) outlets in the state. These include 10 in Thiruvananthapuram, four each in Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Kannur, three in Kollam, two each in Kottayam, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Palakkad and one each in Pathanamthitta, Malappuram and Kasaragod. IMFL is sold with a 50% rebate on sales tax and excise duty in CSDs. In CPCs it is sold with a subsidy on excise levy.

READ ON APP