Delhi sees comeback of popular beer brands this summer amid govt checks on brand push

4 min readJun 13, 2026 12:52 PM IST

Delhi is witnessing a revival of popular beer brands this summer as the Excise Department strengthens monitoring of government-run liquor vends, leading to a sharp rise in sales of leading national labels and renewed debate over retail reforms. (File Photo)

Delhi is witnessing a strong comeback of some of India’s most popular and widely consumed beer brands this summer with the Excise department maintaining a close watch at not just the stocks of the government vends, but also the sales figures, according to industry insiders and officials.

Over the last few years, popular brands largely went missing from the shelves of government-run stores in the city due to “brand push” and “monopoly” of vendors running the government outlets, according to a senior official.

After the liquor policy brought by the previous AAP government faced legal challenges, the government had introduced old excise regime in 2022, allowing only government liquor shops in Delhi run by four corporations — Delhi Tourism & Transportation Development Corporation Ltd (DTTDC), Delhi Consumer’s Cooperative Wholesale Store (DCCWS), Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (DSIIDC), and Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (DSCSC).

However, the demand for popular brands pushed the consumers to neighbouring states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, which eventually impacted Delhi’s excise revenue, according to officials. The trend, however, is now reversing on the sales charts of all the four government corporations that run around 700 liquor shops in Delhi.

Brand push at the vendor-level, according to industry insiders, had led to the replacement of popular brands with those from Nepal and Bhutan, among others. A senior Delhi government official said, “After the issues of brand push were raised by the industry players, the Excise department has been keeping a close eye. It also conducts surprise inspections to keep a tab.”

Vinod Giri, Director General of Brewers Association of India (BAI), said, “The share of well-known national brands used to be 80% when private shops were there in the city. It started falling after private retail was removed and rampant brand pushing of unknown brands by staff of government-owned shops began.It fell to as low as 24% last May. This May, it has improved to 54% due to stricter watch on brand pushing by the excise department.”

Another industry insider said, “Staff at retail vends may have been pushing these brands because of the higher profit margins on Bhutanese and Nepalese beer labels as import duty is not levied on them.”

The months of May and June make the peak season for sales of beer in the city. This year, according to the government data, May saw an increase in sales of beer by about 10% compared to previous year with 11,12,761 cases sold this year as compared to 10,10,524 cases during the same period last year.

Popular brands are among top-sellers. As per the data, national brands with 5,96,351 cases sold this May, compared to 2,47,143 last year. Data also shows that the share of other lesser-known brands was 62% in May 2024 and it sharply increased to 76% last year. This year, it has come down to 46%.

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Officials in the Excise department said that pushing a particular brand at the retail-level is not permitted. “If a customer goes and asks for a specific label, the staff should provide that. The department is closely monitoring the situation,” an official said.

Giri, however, expressed concern that the moment the Excise department takes its eyes off, brand-pushing will be back in full swing. “Long-term solution to brand push lies in bringing back private shops as an alternative, display of stocks outside the shops and converting all shops into self service walk-ins,” he said.

Asked about how many liters or bottles are there in each case, a senior official explained, “Usually, it is 650 ml bottles multiplied by 12. It could also be 330ml x 24, and cans 500 ml x 24.”

Meanwhile, the current excise policy, which has already been extended multiple times, is in force till March 2027. Last year, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had constituted a ministerial committee headed by PWD minister Parvesh Sahib Singh to formulate a “transparent and socially secure” excise policy. Sources said the excise department sent their proposal draft to the government.