No draught beer, pubs fret; govt says policy changing

As summer peaks, Rahul Singh, founder and CEO of The Beer Cafe, is grappling with a strange problem.

- Amin Ali

New Delhi: Not a single draught beer brand is available as none is registered in the city even as imported European beers remain in short supply due to geopolitical problems.

National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has written to the excise department explaining how non-availability of draught beer will be damaging for the industry this summer.

“Since the earlier L2 licence, for supplying directly to restaurants, stands cancelled, no draught beer is available. L1 licence holders are not supplying to L7 licencees as they can’t sell draught beer kegs to consumers in retail. They also don’t have the required storage infrastructure,” added the letter.

The body has requested that supply of draught beer for restaurants should be made direct and delinked from retail vends. It added that in states like Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra, where restaurants buy from retail, supply of draught beer was done directly from the brewery.