While protests against TASMAC outlets are continuing all over the State, a few outlets in the city do brisk business everyday.

‘Loyal’ customers queue up near the counters to have their ‘favourite drink’. In the excitement they do not even realise that they are paying more for the liquor.

Many TASMAC outlets do not accept card payments. A customer of a premium outlet in R.S Puram, who did not want to be identified, complained of a steep hike in the price of liquor. “I am a regular customer of this shop. They have hiked the price drastically. I paid Rs.40 more than the MRP for a bottle of alcohol. They are not accepting credit cards,” he said.

N. Logu, Secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Voice said one of the main reasons behind this is the lack of awareness among public. “Over charging has become very common now in every business. According to law, a shopkeeper will have to pay Rs. 5000 fine or spend three months in prison or both if he is charges more (than MRP) for the products,” he said.

“Computerised billing should be introduced in these shops to stop this. In Kerala every outlet issues a bill. It is very systematic there. Unfortunately the situation is totally different here. The shopkeepers produce duplicate bills after closing the shops at 10 p.m. daily,” Logu alleged.