Liquor sales shoot up by 20%

Liquor sales shoot up by 20%
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Highlights

Giving a major blow to government’s efforts to create awareness on health problems associated with consumption of liquor, the sale of liquor increased by 20 per cent in 2017 compared to previous year till mid-December.

Amaravati: Giving a major blow to government’s efforts to create awareness on health problems associated with consumption of liquor, the sale of liquor increased by 20 per cent in 2017 compared to previous year till mid-December.

The revenue posted through sale of liquor is Rs 9,756.30 crore in 2016 and now it crossed over Rs 11,648.94 crore in 2017, till date. At the same time, the sales witnessed nearly 40 per cent growth in first half of this December compared to the corresponding month of previous year.

Both Indian Made Liquor (IML) and beer sales registered a high growth of 20 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. In terms of sale value, the revenue generated till date this December alone is Rs 572.83 crore in the state, where as this was just Rs 410.11 crore in the previous December, the official data reveals.

East Godavari tops in both liquor and beer sales while Proddutur occupies last position as per sales wise. According to Prohibition and Excise department officials, in East Godavari district, more than 1.31 lakhs of cases of IML and 61,000 cases of beer were sold. The officials informed that they also placed the reports on liquor sales to CM Core Dash Board.

The government collected Rs 3,975 crore of excise revenue till date in 2017 whereas it was Rs 3,385.59 crore in December 2016. Adding to that, the government also collected Rs 6,273.80 crore of revenue as VAT by excise till December 2017.

Interestingly, the booking of cases also increased this year due to proactive participation of public in removing the illegal belt shops and liquor shops along National Highways because of the Supreme Court’s direction this year. The Prohibition and Excise department officials booked cases against 9,103 persons and arrested 9,285 accused persons in 2017.

Whereas, in 2016, they filed only 5,208 cases and arrested 5,204 persons on various allegations, in the state. Excise minister KS Jawahar claimed that the government was not focusing its attention only on increasing the revenue from liquor sales.

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