ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE INDUSTRY URGES GOA GOVERNMENT TO DEFER ITS DEPOSIT REFUND SYSTEM (DRS) IMPLEMENTATION TILL AFTER OCTOBER 2026

GOA, February 22, 2026 – The leading associations of the alcoholic beverage sector, the Brewers Association of India (BAI), the International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI), and the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), which account for most of the branded alcoholic beverages sold in the country as well as in Goa, held a meeting on the 18th February 2026 with the Chairman of the Goa DRS Administration Committee Mr Anthony De Sa, Excise Officials and the chosen System Operator (SO) for implementing DRS in Goa.

The three leading alcobev industry associations jointly requested the Government of Goa to defer the proposed Deposit Refund System (DRS) implementation from April 2, 2026, to post-October 2026 and form a taskforce consisting of industry representatives to sort out contentious and problematic issues in the proposal.

As an environmental measures, the Goa Government intends to implement a Deposit Refund system from 2nd April 2026, under which buyer of a bottle or can will need to pay a deposit when buying which he can claim back from pre-determined recycling points upon returning the pack after use.

In the meeting, the industry bodies said that while the intention behind the move is good, there are far too many gaps in the proposed DRS framework and the timeline of April 2, 2026 is not possible to meet. The Associations underlined that if the industry is forced to do so, there is every likelihood of massive supply chain disruption costing the industry hundreds of crores and the Goa excise department an estimated over ₹100 crore in excise revenue from beer and IMFL.

In its earlier submission to the Government, industry associations had said that the Unique Serial Identifier (USI) specifications and application standards are yet to be issued preventing manufacturers from beginning essential inventory pre-building that typically starts in February. Current applicator systems on production line need to be redone otherwise will reduce production line efficiency by 25-30%, threatening a shortfall of 10-15 lakh cases during peak season. High-speed alternatives require up to five months for vendor onboarding, installation, and validation—time the current schedule doesn’t permit. Industry also pointed out that critical details around bottle recovery pricing, payment timelines, and turnaround rates from the DRS System Operator remain undefined, creating supply chain unpredictability.

“While we support Goa’s commitment to environmental stewardship, the current timelines for implementation are extremely compressed and risk causing significant supply chain disruptions for the industry. Beer production lines run at very high speeds and require substantial reconfiguration for any change — including redesigning applicators, onboarding and validating new vendors, installing equipment, and conducting thorough line trials. Several aspects of the new requirements also await clarification from the Excise Department. With the industry entering its peak summer season, breweries have very limited operational bandwidth to experiment with new configurations. Implementing such changes now could severely impact supply continuity to the state of Goa.”, said Vinod Giri, Director General, Brewers Association of India (BAI).

The industry also raised concerns regarding the preparedness and ability of the chosen SO to undertake this kind of endeavour. “Current plan of 300 return vending machines is grossly inadequate to handle a state and can in no way cope with the crores of bottles that are recycled every month. The one size fit all approach of charging flat Rs 10 on every bottle, be it having a price of Rs 1000 or Rs 50, makes no sense. Further, the chosen SO has no prior experience of handling something of this scale. The scheme has far too many gaps that need be addressed first’ said Sanjit Padhi, CEO of the International Spirits and Wines Association (ISWAI).

The industry welcomed the decision by the DRS Administration Committee to form a joint taskforce with the industry, but wants it to be given more time. “We are glad that the Committee has agreed to form a joint taskforce with the industry to work out details. However, this needs time and the implementation therefore must be deferred to a time post October to ensure a genuine environmental impact rather than undercooked economic disaster”, added Vinod Giri, Director General, BAI.

In its letters earlier, the industry had requested the Goa government to defer DRS to October 2026, and clearly define commercial terms and impact on market price, recovery benchmarks, and payment timelines. It has also sought granting manufacturers first right of reuse for recovered bottles to ensure fair implementation. It has pointed out interstate supply chain linkages and that the State cannot act in isolated manner.