Tasmac to Directly Pay Electricity Bills for Liquor Outlets from September 1

In a bid to eliminate overcharging at retail liquor outlets, the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) will begin paying electricity bills for all its retail shops directly from September 1. The automated payments will be processed through the Electronic National Automated Clearing House (e-Nach) digital payment system managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Under the existing process, shop supervisors and salesmen pay the electricity charges themselves and subsequently submit claims for reimbursement. Personnel at retail outlets have cited delays and failure in receiving these reimbursements as an excuse to charge customers ₹10 above the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) on liquor bottles.

To tackle the MRP violations, Tasmac decided to take over the utility payments directly under its expenditure head. Out of the 4,015 functional retail liquor shops operating across the State, 3,655 outlets currently operate with dedicated meters and independent power connections.

Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited has completed the integration of all meter details for these locations. From September, electricity bills generated for the 3,655 shops will be automatically debited from Tasmac's account. The remaining outlets, which draw electricity through extensions from attached bars, have been directed to bifurcate their connections so they can be integrated into the direct debit system.

According to Tasmac data, only 43 of the 4,015 shops across the state incur electricity bills exceeding ₹20,000, with 32 of those higher-consumption outlets situated inside shopping malls.