BENGALURU: The state’s excise revenue continues to scale up in the second pandemic year with the department achieving 41.49 per cent of budget estimates for the period April to August in the current fiscal 2021-22. In the corresponding period during the last financial year, the department achieved 34.16 per cent of the budget estimate.
According to official statistics, the Excise Department collected Rs 10,197.60 crore during April-August this year as compared to Rs 7,755.40 crore for the corresponding period last year. The total excise revenue collected between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 was Rs 23,332 crore against a target of Rs 22,700 crore for 2020-21. This year, from July 1 to August 31, the revenue collection has already touched Rs 10,197.60 crore for a targeted budget of Rs 24,580 crore for 2021-22. The financial year for the Excise Department commences on July 1.
Last year, due to the national lockdown between March 23 and May 7, there was no sale. In May 2020, when the government allowed retail liquor stores (CL2 licencees) to open, the next day they had hiked Additional Excise Duty (AED) across all slabs of Indian Made Liquor (IML) to mop up an additional Rs 2,500 crore revenue. That was the second hike in AED after the one announced in the Budget last year.
The move boomeranged because the economic slowdown had already hit people and their spending power.
The Karnataka State Beverage Corporation Limited (KSBCL) had sold 198.88 lakh case boxes (CBs) of IML and 63.0 lakh boxes of beer between April and August last year and 261.60 lakh boxes of IML and 87.56 lakh boxes during the period this year. One case box contains 8.64 litres of alcohol.
“While IML sales have picked up, beer sales continue to be sluggish because almost all IT and corporate employees continue to work from home. The night curfew has impacted the food and beverage industry, which has been allowed to do business with 50 per cent occupancy,” said sources.