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In a ruling that could bring some respite to the beer manufacturers, the Odisha High Court today allowed the brewers to supply the beverage to the Odisha State Beverages Corporation (OSBC) at last year's price.
"In an interim order, the division bench comprising of Justice Indrajit Mohanty and Justice Biswanath Rath today directed the beer manufacturers to supply beer to OSBC at 2014-15 prices," said Manoj Kumar Mishra, counsel for SABMiller India and United Breweries Ltd.
The brewers were opposing 20 per cent reduction in offer prices in new excise policy for 2015-16 and did not sign the annual agreement with OSBC for supply of the beverage.
The court's direction could end the stalemate which had led to acute scarcity of beer in the state.
Challenging the government's decision of stiff reduction in offer price, United Breweries, SABMiller India, Carlsberg India Pvt Ltd and Fortune Spirit had gone to the court. The court in its interim order has asked that the price fixation committee of the state government will negotiate with the beer manufacturers to fix a price to be paid to the latter and any differential amount will be deposited in an interest bearing account.
The negotiated price will be provisional till the disposal of the case. The court has posted next hearing of the case to July 15.
