VIJAYAWADA: Every festival season brings huge revenue to the government from liquor sales. However, the Dasara festival followed by the weekend resulted in only a marginal increase in the sale of liquor in Andhra Pradesh. Officials of the AP State Beverages Corporation Limited said that liquor worth around `235 crore was sold in the State on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (October 15 to 17).
At the same time, in neighbouring Telangana, around Rs 150 crore worth liquor was sold on Dasara alone (October 15). “In fact, the revenue in the festival days was low. It is an indication of the flow of non-duty paid liquor from the neighbouring States as well as preparation of country-made liquor within the State,” they said.
Speaking to TNIE, APSBCL Managing Director D Vasudeva Reddy said that the revenue from the sale of liquor in the state stands at around Rs 70 crore per day and it was slightly increased because of Dasara. “Going by the average sale, we should get around `210 crore in three days and it was increased to Rs 235 crore in the three days,” he said.
Stating that the government is taking initiatives to discourage alcohol consumption by reducing the timing of liquor shops, enhancing the prices as well as eliminating the belt shops (unauthorised liquor outlets), he said that the steps are yielding results.
Sources of the Excise department said that despite the raids and filing of cases by the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB), the liquor flow was continuing as several districts in AP share borders with Odiasha, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In fact, many tipplers in the border areas are going to the neighbouring states due to low price and availability of a large variety of brands.