Liquor bill exceeding Rs. 50,000 goes viral & vendor gets booked by Excise Department!

India has been under lockdown mode since March 25th with the Central Government announcing a nation-wide lockdown to spread the check of the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic. The second lockdown was announced from April 15th and the third lockdown is currently in effect from May 4th and will be in place, till May 17th! However, the Central Govt. eased some norms for this lockdown and one of the biggest moves was allowing the re-opening of liquor shops, at the states' discretion. Many states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka allowed their liquor shops to be opened and there was record sales on May 4th (Monday) fuelled by alcohol-starved people!

Now, there have been a couple of photos of liquor bills from Karnataka, which have been going viral on the internet and social media. Both these bills are for products in excess of Rs. 50,000 and though they spawned many memes, have also gotten the vendor who sold these goods, in trouble! The Excise Department authorities booked the vendor as liquor outlets in India are not allowed to sell over 2.3 litres of Indian Made Foreign Liquor or 18.2 litres of beer to a single customer, in a single day. However, a report states that the vendor has mentioned the bill to be in question as being for 8 people who made individual purchases but paid for them with a single credit/debit card, after clubbing their products into a single bill! However, further investigation into this case is currently underway and further details are awaited! Stay tuned...