Tamil Nadu Leads Again: First with Tax Stamps, Now QR Buy-Back Schemes

The Excise Department of Tamil Nadu, India, has issued a tender for a digital platform and unique QR code stickers to support a buy-back scheme for empty liquor containers. The codes will be affixed to liquor, beer, and wine containers sold through state-run retail outlets across Tamil Nadu. These outlets (known as TASMAC – Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation – outlets) play a central role in the legal sale of alcohol in the state, given that Tamil Nadu maintains a monopoly on such sales.

Worthy of note is that Tamil Nadu was one of the first Indian states to adopt tax stamps on alcohol, back in 1998-9, and it is now among the first to use authentication stickers to facilitate bottle buy-back.

The tender was preceded by a pilot project initiated as a result of a court decision ordering TASMAC retailers to work with liquor manufacturers to take back used bottles. The pilot now operates entirely in 17 districts and partially in seven more.