‘Talking pen’ must in all Bengal liquor shops to check authenticity

Kolkata, July 26: The West Bengal Excise Department has directed all authorised excise licensees in the state, which include on-shops, off-shops and bars, to mandatorily keep special "Talking Pens" in their respective premises to check the authenticity of liquor bottles.

By using these "Talking Pens", they can easily check the authenticity of the packaged liquor bottle by examining the new bi-colour holograms attached to each liquor bottle.

An order has been issued by the state Excise Directorate, directing authorised excise licensees in the state to immediately purchase these electronic devices, as per a copy of the order accessed by IANS.

In the order, the state Excise Department has also directed the authorsed excise licensees to purchase these electronic devices from the state government- run Saraswaty Press Ltd on advance payment of the cost.

Each such device will cost Rs 3,000 which includes 18 per cent GST. A charging cable will be provided with each such device.

State Excise Department sources said that recently the department has been flooded with complaints from customers of getting spurious liquors from retail outlets.

"This means that these spurious contents are being sold after faking the bottling, labels, packaging, and even the holograms. So it is impossible for the ordinary customers to identify the fake packages at the time of purchasing and the fraud is noted after consumption of the content at a later stage. So in this process the new device will identify whether the bi-colour holograms on the liquor bottles are authentic or not," an Excise Department official said.