I

llegal and fake alcoholic beverages have inundated the Bali market in the last few months, a tax official said Thursday.

Agus Sudarmadji unveiled the finding during a coordinating meeting involving officials from the Bali Trade and Industry Office, the tax and excise office, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), distributors, importers and tourism industry executives.

He said the tax and excise office had found that 94 percent of 7,000 bottles of alcoholic drinks were distributed without duty stamps.

"Some of them have fake stamps," he said.

He added the office had also found bottles of fake liquor that could be harmful to consumers' health.

"We've already ordered a withdrawal of fake and illegal liquor from the market," Sudarmadji said, adding this had led to an alcohol shortage.

Demand for liquor in Bali is higher than elsewhere in the country, due to the high number of foreign tourists.

Ngurah Wijaya, chairman of Bali Tourism Board, said the island was a well-known tourist destination.

"There are hundreds of star-rated hotels, restaurants, caf*s and pubs that cater to foreign tourists," he said.

A liquor shortage could directly impact the island's tourism and hospitality industry, Wijaya said.

"I expect all related agencies will resolve the problem," he added.

"We have to postpone any distribution of this illegal liquor," Sudarmadji said, adding a plethora of fake liquor would harm consumers.

Nyoman Suwidjana, chairman of the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation's (YLKI) Bali branch, backed the move to punish illegal liquor distributors.

"We hope the case can be settled as soon as possible. We have to consider the Bali tourism industry," he said.