THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Infusion of new management strategies have added to the profit of the Government-run Kerala State Beverages Corporation Limited (KSBCL), which is the principal agency overseeing the manufacture and marketing of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the State.

Managing Director of the Corporation N. Shaker Reddy told The Hindu here that till recently out of the 309 IMFL sales outlets of the KSBCL only 69 were working on all the days except on dry days.

The rest were enjoying one holiday every week to give weekly off to the employees. This was despite the fact that all the bars and other IMFL outlets in the vicinity of the KSBCL shops were being kept open on all the days except on dry days.

"The management of the Corporation decided to keep all KSBCL sales outlets open on all days except on dry days. This could fetch about Rs.80 crore additional profit to the Corporation.

Even though there was some resistance from the workers in the beginning they could be convinced about the increased revenue that the Corporation could make through such a step, without any additional investment on infrastructure.

The bar owners also lobbied strongly against this step. But we could withstand those pressures," Mr. Reddy said. Similarly, application of effective fund management principles on the daily collection of KSBCL outlets could generate about Rs.4 crore additional revenue.

The banks where the daily collections were being deposited were not giving any interest earlier. "But we insisted that we must get some interest on those deposits by converting them into flexi-deposits.

The banks accepted our demand and have now started paying interest," he said.

"We have started enforcing measures to curb leakage of funds and wasteful expenditure even in the purchase of paper for wrapping up the IMFL bottles we sell and in the supply of tea to the shop employees," he said.

Contribution to State exchequer

Mr. Reddy said the Corporation achieved 17 per cent increase in turnover in the first three quarters of the current fiscal compared to the figures last year.

The gross sales revenue of the Corporation from April 1 to December 31, 2006, was Rs.2,279.86 crore while the figure was Rs.1,945 crore during the corresponding period last year.

There was also an increase of 15 per cent in the contribution of the Corporation to the State exchequer in the current year.

The contribution up to December 31 was Rs.1,718.02 crore while the figure stood at Rs.1498.64 crore last year. He conceded that the turnover of the Corporation and the contribution to the State exchequer could be substantially hiked if the sale of illicit brew was checked rigorously.

There should be separate machinery for intelligence collection and investigation of abkari offences.

The corporation was willing even to contribute funds for the infrastructure requirement of such a machinery, he said.

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