LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday hiked the prices of liquor and fuel to earn a combined extra revenue of Rs 4420 crore in 2020-21. The proposals to this effect were approved at the state cabinet meeting presided over by UP CM Yogi Adityanath in the state capital.
While interacting with media persons over the decision to hike the liquor prices in the state, UP Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said that the hike in prices was inevitable to sustain the economy in red. He claimed that against state’s tax demand at Rs 12141 crore in April 2020, the collection remained only Rs
1178 crore.
Elaborating on liquor price hike, the minister said that the effective rise in the prices would range between Rs 5 and Rs 400 across the categories. “This hike in liquor prices will help the state government to earn an extra revenue of Rs 2350 crore, much needed to consolidate the state coffers in the times of distress,” said the minister.
Giving the break-up of hike effected across the categories, Khanna said: “While country-made liquor will now be costlier by Rs 5 per bottle, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL-Economic) in the package of 180 ml will be costlier by Rs 10, 180-500 ml by Rs 20 and 500 ml and above by Rs 30.”
Similarly, IMFL-Medium will also follow the same rate of hike in all three packaging, while IMFL-Regular will witness a hike of Rs 20/180 ml bottle, Rs 30/180-500 ml bottle and Rs 50/bottle weighing 500 ml or above.
The minister further elaborated that the IMFL-Premium would also witness the same pattern of hike in prices across all three categories of packing. However, in the imported liquor (IL) category, a steep hike has been effected. While a bottle of imported liquor weighing 180 ml would now be dearer by Rs 100, the cost of a bottle weighing 180ml-500 ml has been hiked by Rs 200 and the cost of a bottle weighing 500 ml or more would be dearer by Rs 400 per bottle.
In another major decision, the state government increased the VAT on fuels, thereby, hiking the price of petrol by Rs 2 per litre and diesel Re 1 per litre.
The new prices will come into effect from Wednesday midnight. State finance minister claimed that the petrol which had been costing Rs 71.91 per litre so far would now cost Rs 73.91 per litre. The existing VAT on petrol levied by the state government had been Rs 16.74/litre. It would now become Rs 18.74/litre.
Similarly, the diesel would now cost Rs 63.86 per after a rise of Re 1per litre. At present, the diesel has been selling at the rate of Rs 62.86 per litre. The current rate of VAT on diesel is Rs 9.41/litre which will now become Rs 10.41/litre in the state. “The state government will be able to earn an extra revenue of Rs 2070 crore by hiking the fuel prices,” said the minister.