AB InBev banned from selling beer in Delhi for three years

India | It seems grossly unfair. The Delhi government has banned AB-InBev from selling beer in the Indian capital for three years, because the previous owner of its Indian subsidiary, SABMiller, had fiddled with its tax payments.

According to local media, which broke the story on 30 July 2019, SABMiller would attach false barcodes to its bottles of beer distributed in Delhi, whereby it became liable to pay less tax.

AB-InBev has since appealed against the ban to the Commissioner of Excise in the Delhi city government, arguing that the allegations date back to 2016, which is before they took over SABMiller. A decision is still pending.

In India, AB-InBev ranks second behind United Breweries, in which Heineken holds a stake, and ahead of Carlsberg, which ranks third. In the past, India used to be mainly a spirits consumption market, but beer has emerged as a growing segment of the alcohol market.

Nevertheless, beer consumption at 2 litres per capita is considered low, not least when compared with the region’s benchmarks. Of the 58 million hl of alcoholic drinks sold in India in 2018, beer accounted for 47 percent, spirits for 52.1 percent and wine for 0.9 percent, according to estimates by GlobalData.