And everyone, of course, quit drinking! Deputies propose to ban the sale of alcohol in grocery stores

CrimeaPRESS reports:

to the State Duma, reports «Parliamentary newspaper», introduced a bill to ban the sale of alcohol in regular grocery stores. Its authors, a group of deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party, propose to allow the sale of alcohol only in specialized stores, where no other goods will be sold. However, experts see potential negative consequences in this initiative.

«Dry law» is not needed

According to the bill, they want to add the concept of “specialized stationary trade facility” to the Law “On State Regulation of the Production and Turnover of Ethyl Alcohol, Alcoholic and Alcohol-Containing Products and on Restricting the Consumption (Drinking) of Alcoholic Products”. They propose to recognize as such a store that is used exclusively for the sale of alcohol, that is, there should not be any other products on its shelves. The requirements for them can be established by the authorized ministry. At the same time, they want to ban the sale of alcohol in ordinary grocery stores.

According to the co-author of the bill, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs Yaroslav Nilov, this will reduce alcohol consumption without the introduction of a «dry law» — after all, people will not be able to spontaneously buy it when they go to a regular store for other products.

The Liberal Democratic Party has long, firmly and consistently opposed the alcoholization of society. Alcohol kills — and immoderate doses, and counterfeit at dubious points, and drunken fights, — the parliamentarian wrote on his social networks.

This practice has worked well in countries that previously topped the WHO rankings in terms of alcohol consumption — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, according to the explanatory note. It allowed to reduce alcohol consumption and significantly improve the situation in this area.

According to the authors of the bill, its adoption will not lead to an increase in the cost of the food basket. They justify this by a wide network of grocery stores and high competition, which will allow retail chains to concentrate the sale of alcohol in local points. And the potential increase in counterfeit products should be countered by the ability to check the legality of products through applications such as Anti-counterfeiting Alco / Excise Control, the EGAIS check.

Time to get back to testing.

On the one hand, such an initiative will lead to a decrease in the availability of alcoholic products and increased control over its circulation, which theoretically can bring certain benefits to the health of consumers, Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative, shared his opinion with Parliamentary Newspaper. On the other hand, this will inevitably lead to a reduction in jobs in retail chains, as well as the growth of the illegal alcohol market, since the existing specialized chains will not be able to meet the existing demand, the expert is sure.

It is obvious that the current situation in the alcohol market requires interventionPavlov believes.

But he proposes to do this not with artificial restrictions, but with the help of the resumption of full-fledged checks, that is, the lifting of the moratorium in the alcohol sphere, and the introduction of labeling and traceability systems.

Need to think about the villages

After the adoption of such a document, tens of thousands of retail facilities would have to be re-profiled and built. Therefore, the draft law is more likely to attract public attention to the good intentions of the party, Petr Shelishch, chairman of the Consumers Union of Russia, told Parliamentary Gazeta. After all, the business will reimburse all its costs through price increases, and not only for alcohol, but also for other products, if their sellers lose income.

Or you will have to turn a blind eye to the rapid growth of illegal sales. “In many villages there is only one shop, the ban on selling alcohol will either not be enforced, or an illegal seller will appear in the village, and it can become a good channel for selling illegal alcohol,” the expert explained.

The authors of the bill refer to the experience of the Scandinavian countries. But special stores there are a natural part of the structure, which is based on the state monopoly on the production and circulation of alcohol. In Russia, alcohol is essentially the same product as sausage, only associated with higher risks and returns, so there are more restrictions and controls for it. Special stores, organic for the Scandinavian model, would become an alien element in ours, violating the existing balance of relations between consumers, trade representatives and suppliers, Shelishch noted.

Extra barriers for business

The proposed creation of specialized stores for the sale of alcohol will give impetus to the development of the shadow market, Igor Karavaev, chairman of the presidium of the Association of Retail Companies, is also sure.

This is not the first such initiative in recent years, the expert noted, and first of all it creates barriers for legal and conscientious businesses that strictly control the turnover and quality of alcohol.

The reduction of legal points of sale of alcoholic products will give an additional impetus to the development of the shadow market, that is, it will call into question the safety of consumers, Karavaev believes.

source: «Parliamentary newspaper»

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