Andhra liquor sales up by 10%, steady rise likely to continue
VIJAYAWADA: There has been an increase of 10.5 percent in liquor sales in Andhra Pradesh in 2016 as compared to the previous year. Around Rs 10,531 crore has already been collected in revenue against the target of Rs 13,700 crore set by the state Excise Department for this fiscal year.
An excise income of Rs 3,384 crore and VAT income of Rs 6,669 crore has been collected up to December in the 2016-17 fiscal year. In 2015-16, the excise department had collected Rs 12,450 crore in revenue. In general, there will be an increase of 10 per cent every year. An increase of 10 per cent is expected every year from now.
Commissioner for state Excise and Enforcement Mukesh Kumar Meena told Express that there was a 22 per cent decrease in sales last November when compared to 2015 due to demonetisation, but the figure rose again in December.
Excise officials said there usually is an increase in liquor sales by about 30 percent during festive seasons in the state.
Excise officials are estimating sales of more than Rs 100 crore in Vijayawada for January alone as in general every month, around Rs 100 crore stock will be sold from Indian Made Liquor (IML) depot to Vijayawada in Krishna district.
In Krishna district, 26,91,084 cases of liquor with an increase of 15.59 percent when compared to 2015 and 12,18,862 cases of beer with an increase of 5.06 percent from 2015 had been sold from Indian Made Liquor depot in 2016 from April to December.