Bengaluru: Amid the gloomy economic scenario throughout the lockdown in the previous fiscal, tipplers of Karnataka assiduously held the fort on the revenue front and helped the state surpass the targeted excise revenue.
Data shared by the State excise department showed that the targeted revenue of state excise in 2020-21 was Rs 22,700 crore, which was 1,116.04 crore above the excise revenue collection during 2019-20.
The target set by the state government seemed extremely difficult, if not impossible. However, by the end of March 31, 2021, the revenue collection was Rs 23,131.28 crore.
“The increase in revenue in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20 was Rs 1,547.33 crore,” an excise official said.
The achievement was despite the fact that the entire April 2020 ran dry for the tipplers due to stringent lockdown and only Rs 1.06 crore worth liquor was sold in that month.
As the lockdown was lifted partially, the boozers stormed liquor outlets generating a revenue of Rs 1,404.08 crore in May 2020, which was yet short of about Rs 650 crore of the monthly target. However, the situation changed from June with lockdown curbs being further relaxed.
In terms of India Made Foreign Liquor, 583.23 lakh carton boxes were sold in the previous fiscal, which was about 17.5 lakh cartons less compared to 2019-2020.
The beer sale in 2020-21 was 237.82 lakh cartons, which was about 42 lakh cartons less compared to 2019-2020.
The dip in consumption of liquor did not result in the dip in revenue.
PTI