Old Monk maker says Maharashtra lost ₹300 crore in excise revenue since plant shutdown in May

Mumbai: Alcoholic beverage maker Mohan Rocky Springwater Pvt. Ltd told the Bombay High Court on Monday that Maharashtra is losing over ₹300 crore in excise revenue due to the shutdown of its Khopoli factory since May.

"In every state, I have a plant because alcohol excise is a state subject; ₹300 crore of excise with the state has been lost," said senior counsel Venkatesh Dhond, representing the rum manufacturer. Dhond added that about 300 workers at the unit have been left idle due to halted operations.

The maker of Old Monk also told the court that talks with the regulator have failed to bring them to a middle ground, as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has rejected its product labels twice. During an earlier hearing on 3 September, the regulator told the court that Old Monk cannot be sold as rum because it is manufactured using neutral spirit and rum flavouring.

Dhond also argued that Old Monk is manufactured and sold across the country, with Maharashtra being the sole state to impose a ban. “I am manufacturing all over the country. Only in Maharashtra I have been banned and I am the single largest manufacturer of rum with 88% of sales in the market,” he said. Hearing the arguments, the court questioned why objections were raised exclusively in Maharashtra if the product was being sold across India.

Meanwhile, Old Monk told the court on 31 August that it was willing to drop the "7 Years Old Blended" tag from its label and had submitted revised packaging to the food regulator.

The dispute stems from FSSAI laboratory tests that detected external artificial or nature-identical flavouring substances in the products, which the regulator said masked the beverages’ natural characteristics.

Based on these findings, the FSSAI banned sales of specific variants of McDowell's No. 1 Rum, Antiquity Blue Whisky, and Royal Challenge Whisky made by United Spirits; select Old Monk rum variants produced by Mohan Rocky Springwater; and Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky and Old Cask Deluxe XXX Rum made by Inbrew Beverages. United Spirits, the manufacturer of McDowell's No. 1, later withdrew its petition after reaching a settlement with the regulator.

Citing the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018, which require standardized drinks like rum and whisky to retain their characteristic taste and aroma, the regulator argued that adding ‘rum flavour’ to rum or ‘whisky flavour’ to whisky misrepresents these products.

The dispute comes amid a broader FSSAI crackdown on beverage companies. The regulator has issued notices to firms including PepsiCo, Reliance’s Campa, and Monster Energy, directing them to drop the term “energy drink” for certain products. On 6 October, the Delhi High Court issued an interim order barring the companies from manufacturing additional stock under that label.

Yash Tiwari is a Mumbai-based journalist who reports on corporate and regulatory developments, with a focus on court-driven policy shifts and the intersection of law and public policy. He has been in the profession for two years. Before joining Mint, he worked at NDTV Profit as an assistant producer on the TV desk while also reporting, gaining experience across television and print journalism and combining reporting with production expertise.<br><br> Born in Kolkata, a city he remains deeply connected to, Yash has a keen interest in the technicalities of Indian law and aims to decode complex legal developments in a clear and accessible manner for readers. He is a graduate of the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, where he completed his postgraduate diploma in journalism.<br><br> He closely follows politics and government policies, and has covered several state elections as a freelance journalist. His work is driven by the idea of making law less intimidating and more understandable for the general public.<br><br> When not at work, Yash can be found playing cricket, revisiting classic matches, or engaging in conversations about the evolving landscape of law and policy in India.

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