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Liquor to get dearer from Dec in TS
Highlights
Liquor will become dearer for tipplers in Telangana State ahead of New Year’s bash. Excluding cheap liquor, all alcohol prices are likely to be increased from the last week of December.
Hyderabad: Liquor will become dearer for tipplers in Telangana State ahead of New Year’s bash. Excluding cheap liquor, all alcohol prices are likely to be increased from the last week of December.
A three-member committee headed by Principal Secretary to Excise Ajay Mishra recommended a 20 per cent hike in alcohol prices based on a request made by liquor manufacturers.
The committee submitted its proposal for upward revision of liquor prices to the government recently.
Officials of the State Excise department said that retail prices of various liquor brands will go up by 20 per cent once the new Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duty is finalised by the Finance department. By the second week of December, the proposals with revised VAT and excise duty will be forwarded to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for his final nod. In view of huge demand for liquor during New Year celebrations, prices will be increased in the third or fourth week of December which will help manufacturers mint more revenue.
Unable to cope with the financial burden in view of increased cost of liquor manufacturing, authorised distilleries demanded that the government increase alcohol prices particularly for Indian Made Liquor (IML), Wine and IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) three months ago.
The distilleries have been demanding an increase of at least 15 per cent for IML and 20 per cent for IMFL per case (containing 24 bottles weighing each 375 ml) to meet the increased burden on liquor production. The managements also brought to the notice of the government that for the first time, liquor prices have not been hiked for three years.
Previous governments used to increase prices at least one every two years on the request of distilleries.
Official sources said that the increase in liquor prices will not only help the manufacturers but also the government which will earn more revenue. The annual revenue target from the sale of liquor for 2015-16 is Rs12,207 crore as against the total revenue of Rs10,238 crore earned last year.
In the first six months from April to September, the Excise department earned Rs 5,500 crore. The department is confident that it will achieve the revenue target at ease if the liquor prices are hiked.
At present, cheap liquor is available for Rs 40 per 180 ml. Activists against liquor consumption feel that if the prices are increased, liquor addicts will shift to ID liquor (Gudumba) which is available at cheap rates in villages.
But with the recent stringent measures taken by the Enforcement wing of the Excise department, many villages have been freed from ID liquor menace in the state.
Patan Afzal Babu
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