Indian wine maker calls for different treatment
India's Samant Some Wines, owner of the "Sula Vineyards" brand, yesterday urged the Thai authorities to separate wine from other alcoholic beverages in launching such control measures as taxes, excise duties, brand registration and price.
Adrian Pinto, national sales and marketing director of Samant, which is seeking Thai distributors of its brands, said that compared to spirits, wine contained a much lower alcohol content of 11 per cent. It should, therefore, be treated separately from spirits, he argued. He said many farmers in India had benefited from wine production. Sura Vineyards increased grape plantations, particularly in Nasik and Dindori, from only 35 acres (120 hectares) in 1997 to more than 1,200 acres this year. Pinto said Sura Vineyards had started exporting its wine two years ago. It exported more than 5,000 cases in 2005, almost double the previous year, and expects to double its exports annually for the next five years. "India has experienced a great boom in the young wine industry both for domestic sales and export. The Indian government has reduced excise tax for domestic wines from almost 100 per cent two years ago to about 50 per cent, and then zero currently," said Pinto, adding they also reduced import duty from 400 per cent to 280 per cent. In Thailand, the excise on domestic wines is 200 per cent, while foreign wines face 360-per-cent import duty. The wine industry in India could take off as the government is giving it encouragement. In India, wine drinking has become fashionable and acceptable, particularly for women. Pinto added that rules about wine commercials in India were more liberal, while they are very strict in Thailand. He said the Indian government had successfully promoted Nasik - the county's main grape-growing region - as a wine tourism destination. "In India, we can advertise the wine-testing and drinking experiences. We can show the wine-testing room on our TV commercial. Only the bottle with the brand logo cannot be advertised on TV commercials and billboards," said Pinto. "In my view, the more you suppress anything, the more underground activities will emerge. "We have the same advertising ban on spirits, and surrogate advertising has also been prohibited," said Pinto. "We also crack down on drunk driving with strict punishment. We educate consumers to drink with responsibility. The price of alcohol has been controlled by the government, which sets a maximum retail price to counter price-dumping practices."
Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn The Nation
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