New Delhi: Vivek Gupta, the chief executive officer (CEO) of United Breweries (UB) — Heineken’s Indian partner and the producer of Kingfisher lager beer – has spoken to Financial Times (FT) about the impact that raids by regulators are having on business confidence.
He said that “excessive actions” were “curbing growth and complicating investment plans in the country.”
UB is India’s biggest brewer. He said this had implications on the Dutch Heineken as India was a “priority market” for the well-known company.
UB was recently in the cross hairs of Karnataka’s excise department, when in April, seizure of beer and raw materials by officials took place from the company’s brewery close to Mysuru in Karnataka. Gupta termed that as “excessive actions” against the sector.
Ultimately, court orders got back “beer and materials, worth about Rs 980 million” to United Breweries. The state department did not respond to FT for comments.
“Our intent to make big capital investments in India is very high,” Gupta told the Financial Times in Bengaluru, adding that “but of course everyone wants to really see the regulation becoming easy,” he added. “Predictability is a major issue.”
Alcohol regulation is an issue, concludes the newspaper, as there is a contradiction between the current leadership coming from a state where there is prohibition but with alcohol consumption numbers in India steadily on the way up.
Raids, licenses and electoral funding?
Just months ago, when the State Bank of India was forced to make the now “unconstitutional” electoral bond data public, investigations revealed coincidences of raids on companies across sectors, mostly in sectors needing licenses from regulators and electoral bond purchases and donations made by such companies.
Forty-one firms which donated Rs 2,471 crore to the BJP via electoral bonds, as per investigations, are facing probe by government agencies like the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) department. Most of the amount, said activists, about Rs 1,698 crore was donated to the BJP, after raids by these agencies.
The opposition parties have alleged that there has been, over time, a connection between raids and pressures from the ruling party to donate to them. The BJP has denied charges. Prime Minister Modi after a long silence spoke, defending electoral bonds as a way of cleansing the system.
The BJP has got Rs 8,251.8 crore, of the total electoral bonds sold worth about Rs 16,518 crore.
