Say adieu to Happy Hours. The government is considering a policy to discourage alcohol consumption by levying stringent taxes on it while restricting its availability at the same time. The proposal is to introduce tax levels on the basis of beverage type. For example, certain grades of alcohol having special appeal to adolescents could attract higher taxes.

The government is also looking at linking alcohol prices to inflation and banning the use of price promotions, discount sales and flat rates for unlimited alcohol consumption. Under the proposed National Alcohol Control Policy, retail sales would be restricted to licensed stores and alcohol vends would be more strictly regulated. Moreover, days and hours of retail sales would also be regulated besides increasing the legal age for drinking.

The policy is being worked upon a World Health Organisation (WHO) document ? ?strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol?. The heath ministry, which is taking the lead in drafting the policy, would shortly hold discussions with the commerce and industry ministry in this regard.

Apart from controlling pricing and availability, the government also plans to restrict marketing of alcoholic beverages by setting up regulatory frameworks. Besides regulating the content and volume of marketing, the draft policy also focuses on regulating direct and indirect marketing in media. For example, a soda advertisement in the garb of liquor brand?s promotion could face ban. Currently, such surrogate advertising is widely practised.

The policy also calls for reducing alcohol strength in different beverage categories. Beverages like whiskey, vodka, rum and gin have around 38-42% alcohol content. Stringent labelling norms have also been mooted to indicate harmful effects of alcohol, in line with the pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.

Frameworks for monitoring and surveillance activities, including periodic surveys on alcohol consumption, could be set up. The government is also considering creating a repository of data at the country level based on internationally-agreed indicators and reporting data in an agreed format to the WHO.