MANGALURU: The excise department collected a fine of Rs 10.96 crore from 6,356 retail liquor shops in the last three years in the state for charging customers more than the MRP. As per the Excise Act, CL-2 (retail shops) and CL-11C (MSIL retail outlets) have to sell liquor at MRP, while there are no such restrictions on price of liquor sold by other types of licensees.
Besides slapping a penalty under Section 36 of the Karnataka Excise Act 1965, the excise department also suspended the licences of 121 shops during the financial year 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. The highest number of such violations were found in Tumakuru, Kolar, Vijayapura, Ballari and Kalaburgi districts in the last three years.
Over one-sixth of such violations were found in the MSIL shops as it accounted for 1,003 cases during this period from which the department collected a fine of Rs 1.88 crore and suspended 20 licences. The data was shared by Excise Minister RB Timmapur in reply of questions raised by MLC Ivan D’Souza at the recent Assembly session.
The data revealed that the sale of liquor in the state was also on the rise despite the rise in prices. While 660.16 lakh boxes of liquor were sold in 2021-22, it went up to 698.46 lakh boxes in 2022-23 and 705.53 lakh boxes in 2023-24. Of the total sales, 84.27 per cent came from liquor priced low in the first four slabs of the declared price.
The minister said compared to neighbouring states, the price of imported liquor is 40 per cent higher in the state which has resulted in its low sales. However, he said the sales of imported liquor is expected to go up with the state government announcing to rationalise the prices to bring them on par with the neighbouring states.
To a query, the minister replied that the price of neutral spirit which is used in the manufacture of low-quality liquor is based on the market conditions and the department has no role to play in fixing its price.