Kochi: Thousands of litres of rectified spirit that would have ended up as bottles of spurious liquor in Kerala has turned what the world needs the most now – hand sanitiser. The Kerala state excise department has released a large quantity of the spirit it had seized in various cases to several government institutions for making hand sanitisers in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The demand for sanitisers has gone up all over the world as keeping hands clean is one of the most effective ways to contain the spread of the virus that causes the pandemic COVID-19.
The excise department has sold 4,650 litres of spirit, seized in over 20 cases, to various institutions in the past few days to make sanitisers.
While several medical colleges in the state has bought 2,300 litres, 2000 litres have been purchased by the Thiruvananthapuram central prison. Thiruvananthapuram corporation collected 350 litres, a top excise officer said.
The department has nearly 4,000 litres of spirit in stock now. However, it could be released only after getting the necessary clearance from the state chemical lab.
“We are allowed to sell the seized spirit to government institutions on demand at a price of Rs 30 per litre. For that, we need a clearance from the chemical lab. We have requested the lab to speed up the procedure considering the coronavirus situation in the state. We want to join the government's 'Break the Chain' (to contain spread of coronavirus) campaign this way,” the officer said.
Rectified spirit is ethanol which, according to the World Health Organisation's guidelines, could be used to produce sanitisers.
State-owned Travancore Sugars and Chemicals Ltd, which manufactures Indian Made Foreign Liquor, has been the major customer of the excise department for years.
“We cannot keep it for long for various reasons such as risk of theft, probability of evaporation and safety concerns. As soon as the formalities related to a seizure case is over, we get the clearance certificate and sell it to the department in need,” the officer said, adding that there has never been a dearth of demand.
Excise nod for KSDP
Though the Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KSDP) had sought ethanol from the excise department for sanitiser production, the latter has not been able to meet the demand. The department on Thursday granted permission to the company to purchase spirit from Travancore Sugars as much as required.
“We have given the company permission to purchase spirit in accordance with its storage capacity,” Excise Commissioner Aananthakrishnan told Onmanorama.
KSDP ventured into sanitiser production last week, for the first time since inception in 1974, after the state reported acute shortage of the disinfectant liquid.
“Initially, we will be purchasing 10,000 litres of spirit from Travancore Sugars. As of now, we have orders for 50,000 litres of sanitiser from the government alone,” KSDP chairman C B Chandrababu told Onmanorama.
The company initially purchased 10,000 litres of isopropyl alcohol from a Mumbai-based firm. However, as the demand rose all over the country, it became costlier and unavailable.
KSDP turned to the excise department for spirit following this.
The company sells a bottle of 500 ml sanitiser for Rs 175 (+ GST).
Hand sanitiser is made using ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and distilled water.
