Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy who talked about imposing ‘prohibition’ in a phased manner on liquor in the state after coming to power is now taking decisions to encourage liquor consumption.

Jagan on Saturday (today) decided to reduce liquor prices in AP besides offering all popular liquor brands in the state.

Jagan government increased liquor rates sharply and stopped sales of all popular liquor brands arguing that this will discourage liquor consumption.

Now, the YSRCP government took a U-turn and decided to cut liquor prices and offer all popular liquor brands in AP liquor stores from next week as a New Year Gift.

The government reduced VAT and additional excise duty on liquor to bring down prices.

With the latest decision, the liquor prices are expected to come down by 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

The government says it was forced to take these decision to check illegal flow of liquor from other states to AP.

The government stated that people are procuring liquor from other states illegally as the cost is lower in other states when compared with AP and also to consume popular liquor brands available in other states instead of consuming unknown liquor brands that were on offer in AP.