BENGALURU: The State Excise Department has outdone its performance in the 2021-22 financial year after achieving an “unprecedented” - 106.90 per cent - towards the Budget estimate for the said FY. The revenue collection of the department from April 2021 to March 2022 is Rs 26,276.83 crore as against the annual revenue target of Rs 24,580 crore for 2021-22, official sources said.
Despite being a consecutive pandemic year, the State Excise managed to shore up its revenue charts to “incredible” heights. The revenue collection has come as a pleasant surprise to the department, which is
now going to do a detailed and district-wise analyses of the reasons behind the performance.
“We were certainly not expecting this kind of revenue collection. It needs to be analysed,” said informed sources. The department’s revenue collection in 2020-21 - the first pandemic year - was at Rs 23,332.10 crore as against the annual financial target of Rs 22,700 crore reflected a 102.78 per cent achievement of the budget estimate.
Sale of Indian Made Liquor (IML) scaled up in 2021-22 in comparison to the previous year. The Karnataka State Breweries Corporation Limited (KSBCL) sold 660.16 lakh case boxes (CBs) in 2021-22 as against 583.23 lakh CBs in 2020-21 clocking in 13.19 per cent increase to the previous year. One CB contains 8.64 litres of alcohol.
The official statistics show that the sale of beer, which had suffered huge losses in the first pandemic year, picked up subsequently. From 237.82 lakh CBs in 2020-21, beer sales went up to 268.83 lakh CBs in 2021-22 showing a 13.04 per cent increase in comparison to the previous year.