Liquor ban in line with European rules, says FT minister

 

Kuala Lumpur City Hall will ban the sale of liquor at sundry shops and convenience stores from Oct 1 next year.

KUALA LUMPUR: Guidelines recently introduced for liquor licence applications to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) were not unusual as similar rules have been introduced in other countries and in Europe, Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa said today.

He said surveys had been conducted on the guidelines used in other countries including the system practised by Singapore, prior to the introduction of the new rules here.

“We also looked at the rules applied in other countries and in Europe where the purchase of liquor is very controlled in terms of the time and place it can be sold. Therefore it has nothing to do with religious or racial issues,” he said.

Annuar said the guidelines were aimed at regulating the sale of alcohol following public complaints about the sale of illegal liquor as well as of alcoholic beverages in small packets at sundry shops and mini-market chains.

“There are also those who sell liquor to minors and school students as it is easily available everywhere,” he added.

The new DBKL guidelines for the liquor licences stipulate that sundry shops and convenience stores will no longer be allowed to sell liquor from Oct 1 next year.

The move was met with mixed reactions from various quarters, with some linking it to issues of race and religion.

Earlier today, a deputy minister for religious affairs, Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, said the government had not ruled out the possibility of expanding the ban to all sundry shops, groceries, convenience stores and Chinese medicine shops across the country. - FMT