Colognes may join prohibition list

AHMEDABAD: If your favourite deodorant spray, after-shave lotion or hair vitalising concoction is out of stock almost every time you go to the market in Gujarat, don’t be surprised.
While Gujarat’s prohibition laws has failed to effectively stop illegal liquor sale, it has managed to stop or restrict entry into the state of medicinal products and toiletries that contain alcohol.
Even products like deodorants and colognes that have alcohol as a base require the importer to obtain a licence from the state excise and prohibition department, even if nobody in the right frame of mind would ever drink these as an intoxicant.
For these archaic laws, it does not matter that these products cannot be consumed orally. Thus the Keo Karpin hair vitaliser, Dr. Reddy’s Mintop, Zydus Cadila’s Gromane and Kopran’s Hairex are perennially out of stock.
So are Denim after-shave, Rexona and Axe deo-sprays and even Atkinson’s Eau De Cologne. The main carrying and forwarding agents of these products say that the shortage is due to the complicated process of obtaining licence. This prompts retailers to smuggle in the goods without the licence or import pass.
The retailers and distributors flay the prohibition policy which has incorporated certain rules under the Bombay Medicinal and Toilet Preparation rules 1955. These rules require that import of any medicine, toilet product, antiseptic, flavouring essence or syrup that contains alcohol requires a permit.