THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cabinet meeting held on Wednesday decided to hike duty on liquor by 10 to 35 per cent per liquor case to mop up additional revenue to fight Covid-19. An ordinance would be promulgated by the state government to effect the hike in duty. Around 10 per cent duty of the basic price of beer and wine would be increased, while it would be around 35 per cent for Indian-made foreign liquor.
Customers will have to shell out an extra amount ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 160 for various brands. The state government is planning to raise additional revenue of Rs 2,000 crore through the hike in duty of liquor if the state meets the previous year’s sales figures this year as well, according to Finance Minister Thomas Isaac.
The lockdown has impacted the revenue of the state in a big way after the closure of liquor and lottery sales apart from the huge drop in GST share. This has forced the state government to hike the duty on liquor, said the state in a briefing in the evening. However, the cabinet meeting did not taken a decision on opening of liquor outlets in the state.
The Bevco is in consultation with Kerala Startup Mission for developing an App for introducing virtual queue system in liquor outlets, which is expected to be finalised in a couple of days. So the opening of the liquor outlets would be in line with the launching of the App.
Further, the state government is planning to bring an amendment to Kerala Abkari Act in order to allow parcel of liquor from bars. The token system or the virtual queue to be introduced for liquor sale would be applicable to bars as well in the beginning.
Bevco in consultation with Startup Mission
The Bevco is in consultation with Kerala Startup Mission for developing an app for introducing virtual queue system in liquor outlets, which is expected to be finalised in a couple of days.
duty At present
212% on IMFL
202% on cheap IMFL
102% on beer
80% on foreign-made foreign liquor
Amendment on cards
The govt is planning to amend the Kerala Abkari Act to allow parcel of liquor from bars
Further other taxes, including excise duty, are slapped on liquor, other than the state duty