Despite lockdown, Karnataka records high excise revenue

The State, even whereas within the grip of COVID-19, has reported larger excise revenue collections over the past two months in comparison with the corresponding interval within the earlier 12 months.

This comes regardless of the sale of beer falling steeply and the Indian Made Liquor (IML) gross sales falling marginally in May, when lockdown was in place.

Coming amid complaints of poor sale by the liquor business, the figures present that the excise revenue of ₹3,650 crore has been collected this 12 months in April and May towards ₹1,404.08 crore collected final 12 months in the identical months.

‘Not comparable’

The business, nevertheless, was fast to say that final 12 months’s figures can’t be in comparison with this 12 months since liquor shops had been closed utterly in April and opened solely in early May.

The excise revenue collected for April and May this 12 months was ₹2,205 crore and ₹1,445 crore, respectively. On a mean, the month-to-month excise obligation assortment is round ₹2,000 crore.

The steepest fall, nevertheless, has been reported within the sale of beer throughout May when strict lockdown was enforced by a number of districts aside from the Statewide strictures that capped enterprise hours within the morning to 4 hours. While 12.29 lakh containers had been offered in May 2020, it fell to 7.67 lakh containers in May this 12 months. In reality, in April, 25.7 lakh carton containers had been offered. In 2019, when enterprise was regular, 58 lakh cartons had been offered in two months.

The figures for IML in May present that gross sales marginally fell from 44.46 lakh carton containers in 2020 to 43.67 lakh carton containers in 2021. In April, 55.99 lakh cartons had been offered. In 2019, a complete of 91 lakh cartons had been offered in two months.

“The sale of beer has dropped steeply since sale had been allowed early in the morning. Beer cannot be consumed everywhere. Currently, strict lockdowns are in force in 20 districts where sales have dropped drastically,” mentioned B. Govindaraj Hegde, secretary of Federation of Wine Merchants Association Karnataka.

Duty issue

“If the revenue has increased despite a decline in sales that is due to a steep increase in duty last year,” Mr. Hegde mentioned.

He mentioned that it had grow to be extraordinarily troublesome to retain employees in about 5,400 liquor merchandising premises that additionally run eating places. “The industry had started showing signs of revival by November and the lockdown has pushed it back,” he mentioned.