Maharashtra cabinet rejects incentive scheme for wine industry

Maharashtra state cabinet has disapproved a proposal mooted by the state industries department to restart the Wine Industrial Promotion Scheme (WIPS).

State cabinet ministers from the BJP strongly objected to the wine scheme and the proposal was shot down in a cabinet meeting concluded in mid November 2022, leaving Maharashtra’s wine policy in limbo.

Ministers opposed the scheme on the ground that allowing its revival was likely to show them in a bad light, since they had opposed liquor and wine promotion decisions taken by Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the past.

WIPS is an incentive scheme initiated in the state in 2009 to encourage the wine industry. The scheme was stalled for a while due to the financial crunch in the wake of successive Covid-19 lockdowns from June 2020.