An IT professional from Chennai has launched a public reporting platform to crowdsource complaints of alleged overcharging at Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) liquor outlets across the state, bringing renewed attention to a long-standing grievance frequently raised by consumers in Tamil Nadu, as reported in DTNext.
The platform, named “TASMAC Scam Watch,” was allows users to submit complaints against specific TASMAC outlets by selecting the district, locality and shop number. Users can also mention the amount allegedly collected above the printed Maximum Retail Price (MRP).
To support complaints, the portal enables users to upload photographs of liquor bottles, payment screenshots, bills and videos as evidence of alleged overcharging.
The initiative was developed by Deepak Sivakumar, a city-based IT professional, who said the objective of the platform was to systematically document repeated instances of overcharging at liquor outlets.
Speaking to DT Next, Deepak said that after publicising the platform over the past two days, he realised that several others were also attempting to build similar public-interest applications addressing the same issue.
He said the intention behind the initiative was to reduce scams and create accountability through publicly accessible complaint documentation.
The website also contains a dashboard designed to track complaint trends district-wise. However, Deepak clarified that the current dashboard entries are only mock data as the system remains in an early development phase.
According to him, the platform received significant attention within hours of launch. He said that on Monday alone, the website recorded nearly 2,500 active users and close to 7,900 page views, along with nearly 19,000 user interactions on the platform.
Deepak further stated that although data collection had only begun that morning, the platform had already received around 30 to 40 complaint entries.
The website is also reportedly being developed with Tamil-language interfaces to improve accessibility for users across the state.
Apart from the TASMAC-focused portal, Deepak said he has also been working on another public-interest platform aimed at documenting grievances in government hospitals. According to him, that initiative seeks to record recurring complaints relating to lack of hospital beds, medicine shortages and inadequate access to diagnostic facilities despite substantial public expenditure on healthcare infrastructure.
The launch of the TASMAC complaint platform comes amid continuing allegations from consumers, activists and political parties that several TASMAC outlets routinely collect money above the printed MRP without issuing proper bills, an issue that has remained a recurring public concern in Tamil Nadu.
The TASMAC scam watch site created by a techie to crowdsource complaints has been covered by @dt_next today.
We need more such citizen-driven, vibe-coded initiatives to help track and give suggestions to the TN govt.@ChristinMP_ had told me if similar initiatives in the… pic.twitter.com/saBqwzLvwD— Siddharth Prabhakar (@Sidprabhakar7) May 12, 2026
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