THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cabinet meeting held on Wednesday decided to hike liquor duty by 10-35% per liquor case to mop up additional revenue to fight against COVID-19. An ordinance would be promulgated by the state government to effect the hike in duties. Around 10 per cent duty of the basic price of beer and vine would be increased, while it would be around 35 per cent for the Indian Made Foreign Liquor.
In fact, the liquor case which costs over Rs 400 per case will see an increase of 35 percent duty, while the price of a case that costs below Rs 400 will be slapped a 10 per cent hike. The details of this would be announced by the chief minister in the evening. The state government is planning to raise an additional revenue of Rs 700 crore through the hike in duty of the liquor.
The cabinet meeting has not taken any decision on the opening of the liquor outlets in the state. The Bevco corporation is in consultation with Kerala Startup Mission for developing an app for introducing virtual queue system in liquor outlets. The opening of the liquor outlets would be in line with launching of the app. Further, the state government is planning to bring an amendment to Kerala Abkari Act in order to allow bar owners to carry out parcel services.