Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu announced on Sunday that ‘Bal Beverage Packaging’, a company that supplies aluminium cans for beer, soft drinks, and perfumes, plans to set up a production unit in the State. The investment for this project is Rs 700 crore.
If the new unit starts operations, it is expected to provide direct employment to around 500 people. Ganesan, the head of corporate affairs for ‘BAL’ India, met with the minister at the Secretariat to discuss the company’s expansion plans.
Sridhar Babu assured Ganesan that the State would provide the necessary land and other infrastructure for ‘BAL’. He pointed out that currently, beer cans found in the State are bottled in Maharashtra. The use of aluminium cans for packaging beer in the State is very low compared to Karnataka and Maharashtra, where it is up to 25 per cent.
To allow the bottling of beer in aluminium cans in the State, some changes would need to be made in the excise system. The minister said he would discuss these changes with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Excise Minister Jupalli Krishna Rao. By using aluminium cans for 500 ml of beer, the excise duty would be reduced, potentially adding an additional Rs 285 crore to the government’s income annually.
During his last visit to the US, Sridhar Babu met with officials at Coca Cola’s head office in Atlanta, Georgia. The company expressed interest in setting up a new bottling unit in Peddapalli district. ‘BAL’ would supply aluminium cans for this unit, which would be established at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore. Sridhar Babu suggested that Ganesan submit a complete investment plan for the project.
