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 () 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 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.
Flavouring issue
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 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.