Telangana: Beer, the favoured beverage for most could soon turn pricey!

The Brewers Association of India (BAI) have urged the Telangana government to immediately allow price increases to beer companies to duly compensate for inflation

Hyderabad: The Brewers Association of India (BAI), the association of India’s largest beer-makers such as United Breweries, AB InBev and Carlsberg, have urged the Telangana government to immediately allow price increases to beer companies to duly compensate for inflation.

In a letter to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, the BAI Director General Vinod Giri said the present basic prices allowed to beer supplier companies in Telangana were based on 2019 costs submission. “Since then, the cost of production has gone up by 35-40 per cent. However, the government has not allowed a basic price revision to compensate for this increase in cost of production,” he said.

---

This has made operations in Telangana commercially unsustainable and has made any future investments unviable, Giri pointed out in the letter

Recognising urgent need to increase supplier prices for beer, the Telangana government had set up a Price Fixation Committee (PFC) in the month of July 2024 and directed all beer companies operating in the state to submit their proposal for revised declared prices, which is the price at which companies supply beer to the state government.

The government then had also directed the BAI to present an industry perspective on the cost of production of beer and other factors that may affect the price of beer in the state.

As per the BAI, the process of submissions, presentations and industry consultations was concluded by the first week of August 2024, but subsequently there has not been any progress thereafter.