‘Digital payment cannot curb MRP violations’

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), the monopoly agency in selling liquor in the State, has planned to introduce QR code payment in 4,810 liquor shops across all districts.

Additionally, Tasmac officials have also planned to introduce a debit and credit card system for liquor sales in all the outlets.

There would be four online payment options such as Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and QR code, debit cards supported by Rupay, debit cards other than Rupay, credit cards and international cards.

The State government’s move to introduce online sales comes against the backdrop of several complaints that Tasmac outlets were charging higher than the MRP.

A senior official from Tasmac told DT Next that a tender has also been called recently for the supply of Point of Sales (PoS) devices and also to provide QR codes. “Due to various issues, introduction of online sales might be delayed,” he added.

Not in rural areas

Quoting a survey, he said that though mobile usage is high in Tamil Nadu compared to other states, smartphone usage is less than 20% in rural areas.

“Only people in the cities have smartphones, and even then not many have access to QR code payment,” he pointed out.

K Sivaraman, a senior manager in a private bank in the city, concurred, and said that there was no data on the number of Gpay users in rural areas. “Moreover, even ATMs in small towns do not transact much,” he said.

“To open a Gpay account, you have to download Google Pay on phones running Android 5.0 or higher, then enter the phone number, and sign in with the Google account and add a bank account. Do you think all this is possible for most mobile users in rural areas?”

A senior salesman at a Tasmac outlet in the city outskirts said the MRP violations cannot be curbed fully by introducing PoS machines and QR codes.

“Only in cities it could work well. Out of the total liquor consumption in the State, cities account to about 60%. The remaining is purchased in rural areas, which means the MRP violations can be controlled only in cities,” he explained.

Online payment slower

Peak hours for liquor shops in the city are between 6 pm and 10 pm. That’s when the salesmen and supervisor would be busy dealing with consumers. “There will not be enough time to monitor whether the online transaction, especially QR code, was done correctly by the customer.

Moreover, each manual sale is easier and faster than online, as the consumer has to negotiate the crowd, take the mobile, search for QR code, enter two pin numbers and then pay. This will take at least a minute. And the salesman, who will be busy during that period, will find it difficult to hear the speaker to check if the consumer has paid correctly or not,” he elaborated.

Adding to the woes is poor internet connection and PoS machines which often malfunction. “If the customer uses a debit or credit card, the transaction would take much longer than the QR code sales,” he said.

Glitches in devices

L Manoj Kumar, an IT specialist, who deals with the internet connections of the private service provider, said that the internet usage has improved in rural areas in recent times as the technology was improving regularly.

“But, during peak hours, PoS users will be more and the internet tower in the cities can’t handle so many requests at one time. Therefore, accessing the PoS machines will be delayed in the evening,” he pointed out.

B Kanakaraj, who is a PoS salesman, said that the cost of the device ranges between Rs 2,500 and Rs 45,000 (high-quality used in supermarkets). “If you buy in the Rs 2,000 range, it will have certain issues, which I can’t explain as a marketing person. So, the only solution is to go for a higher version.”