Kerala State Beverages Corporation Ltd (KSBC) is a public sector company

Public sector undertakings in Kerala

Public sector undertakings in Kerala are of two types, public sector units in which majority shares are owned by Union Government and public sector units in which majority shares are owned by State Government. Public sector undertakings in Kerala , i.e. enterprises in which majority shareholder is...

 owned by the Government of Kerala

Government of Kerala

The Government of Kerala is a democratically elected body that governs the State of Kerala, India for a period of 5 years. The state government is headed by the Governor of Kerala as the nominal head of state, with a democratically elected Chief Minister as real head of the executive. The state...

, which has a monopoly over wholesale and retail vending of alcohol in Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

. It controls the retail sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor

Indian Made Foreign Liquor

Indian Made Foreign Liquor, often abbreviated IMFL, is a term used to denote western-style hard liquors such as whisky, rum, vodka, etc., which are manufactured in India...

 and beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

 trade in the state.

History

As per recommendation of a judicial commission, Kerala Government in 1984 amended the Abkari Act and set up a Public Sector Corporation to procure spirit and arrange blending, bottling, sealing and distribution of arrack and sale of IMFL.

Organisation

KSBC is one of the most profitable public sector units of Kerala.. The company is headed by a board with six members. The territory along with it sales and warehousing is divided into three regions by the corporation. Each region is headed by a Regional Manager. KSBC has had record sales during Onam, Christmas & New Year with Chalakudi reporting the highest sales.. Incidentally Chalakudi records an average daily sale of Rs. 5-7 lakhs.. Rum

Rum

Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...

 and brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

together account for 94% of KSBC sales in Kerala. Kerala is presently the largest consumer of rum in India.

KSBC has about 19 warehouses and 337 retail outlets throughout Kerala.

Social Impact

With one of the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in India, alcohol related problems are on the rise with even the President expressing deep concern about the rising alcoholism in Kerala.