TASMAC on Diwali 2026: open or closed, timings, and what Deepavali sells
Deepavali is not a dry day. In 2026 it falls on Sunday 8 November, the shops open at 12 noon as usual, and the festival is the busiest stretch of TASMAC's year: ₹789.85 crore across three days in 2025. Here is the answer, the last three years of reported sales, and what a rush of that size does to the shelf you are walking towards.
Is TASMAC open on Diwali 2026?
Yes. Deepavali is a public holiday for offices and banks, but it is not on Tamil Nadu's dry-day list, and no closure has been declared for 2026. Every TASMAC shop, ordinary and Elite, trades on Sunday 8 November at its normal hours: 12 noon to 10 pm. The Saturday before and the Monday after are ordinary trading days too.
There is no "TASMAC Diwali holiday". The days the shops do shut are listed in full on our dry days page: all twelve of 2026 have passed, the last being Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October. The next fixed closure is Republic Day, Tuesday 26 January 2027, with Thiruvalluvar Day usually declared a few days before it. No change to festival timings had been announced when this was written; last year's reports describe queues "from noon until closing time at 10 p.m.", the same hours as any other day.
What Deepavali sold: 2023, 2024, 2025
TASMAC's Deepavali figures are reported every year, but not for the same number of days, so the headline totals cannot be compared directly. The table keeps each figure with the period it covers.
| Year | Deepavali | Period reported | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Sun 12 Nov | 2 days · 11–12 Nov | ₹467.63 cr ₹220.85 cr + ₹246.78 cr |
| 2024 | Thu 31 Oct | 2 days · 30–31 Oct | ₹438.53 cr ₹202.59 cr + ₹235.94 cr |
| 2025 | Mon 20 Oct | 3 days · Saturday to Monday | ₹789.85 cr |
The 2025 report put the same three days of 2024 at ₹650 crore, so the like-for-like rise was about ₹140 crore. By zone, 2025 went Madurai ₹171 crore, Chennai ₹158 crore, Tiruchirappalli ₹157 crore, Salem ₹153 crore and Coimbatore ₹150 crore. The same report gives TASMAC's ordinary day as "exceeding ₹150 crore"; the Deepavali days of 2023 and 2024 ran at about one and a half times that.
2026 falls on a Sunday, and that matters
In 2024 sales came in ₹29 crore below 2023, and a senior TASMAC official explained it by the calendar: the 2023 festival fell on a Sunday, the 2024 one on a Thursday, and sales run high when a festival lands on a weekend. In 2023 people had started for their home towns on the Friday night; in 2024 many could not get the Friday off.
Our own counts show the same thing on ordinary weeks. Across September 2026, Sundays averaged 1.07 crore bottles against 78.4 lakh on Thursdays, 36% more, and Sunday is the day beer moves: 16.8 lakh bottles against 10 lakh. The long version is in Sunday is Tamil Nadu's big night.
Deepavali 2026 is a Sunday again, the first since 2023. We are not going to put a number on it. What the record supports is the direction: the busiest day of the week and the busiest festival of the year arrive together, with the Saturday before it carrying part of the load, as it did in 2023 (₹220.85 crore on the Saturday, ₹246.78 crore on the day).
What a rush does to the shelves
The nearest thing in our counts to a festival rush is the eve of a dry day. Thursday 1 October 2026, the day before Gandhi Jayanti, is the latest.
It was not an even lift. Brandy rose 62% over the Thursday average, rum 50%, vodka 40% and beer only 20%, so brandy's share of bottles went from 69.9% to 73.6%. Three brandies cleared more than nine lakh bottles each in the day: Black Pearl (10.5 lakh), Jet (9.2 lakh) and Imperials Express Special (9.1 lakh).
A dry-day eve and Deepavali are not the same event: on the eve people buy for a day the shops are shut, on Deepavali the shops are open and the buying spreads over the weekend. What carries over is what happens at the counter. The popular quarters and halves go first, the queue is longest in the evening, and the shop nearest you is not always the one that still has your bottle.
Before you go
Check the shelf first. Live stock on the site, shop by shop in the app, counted through the day. The nearest shops are listed by district and taluk.
Go early. In 2025 the queues ran from noon to 10 pm and the crowds stopped sales for a while at several outlets.
Know the price. One MRP for the whole state, festival or not: the full price list has every bottle and size.
Expect ₹10 over MRP. From October 2026 each bottle carries a ₹10 deposit, paid back when the empty is returned. Anything above MRP + ₹10 is overcharging, and this is how to report it.
Mind the close. 10 pm is the last sale, on Deepavali as on any other night.
Common questions
Is TASMAC open on Diwali 2026?
Yes. Deepavali, Sunday 8 November 2026, is not a dry day in Tamil Nadu. TASMAC shops open at their ordinary hours, 12 noon to 10 pm.
Is there a TASMAC holiday for Diwali?
No. Deepavali is a public holiday for offices, but it is not on the dry-day list and no closure has been declared. The shops also trade on the Saturday before and the Monday after.
What are TASMAC timings on Diwali?
12 noon to 10 pm, the same as every other trading day. No festival change to the hours has been announced.
How much did TASMAC sell on Diwali 2025?
₹789.85 crore across the three days from Saturday to Monday, with Deepavali on Monday 20 October 2025. The same three days of 2024 were reported at ₹650 crore. Madurai zone led with ₹171 crore.
What was the TASMAC Deepavali collection in 2024 and 2023?
In 2024, ₹438.53 crore over two days: ₹202.59 crore on 30 October and ₹235.94 crore on Deepavali, 31 October. In 2023, ₹467.63 crore over two days: ₹220.85 crore on 11 November and ₹246.78 crore on Deepavali, 12 November.
When is the next TASMAC dry day after Diwali?
Republic Day, Tuesday 26 January 2027, is the next fixed one. Thiruvalluvar Day, around the middle of January, is usually declared before it.
Open at noon, shut at ten, and busier than any other weekend of the year. Look at the shelf before you leave home.