Bengaluru: Though Bengaluru is tagged as the pub city the liquor industry in Karnataka seems to be faltering. The Excise Department for the second consecutive year is staggering far behind the 'ambitious' revenue targets for the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16.
So far this year the Excise Department, which is known to be the single highest revenue churner for the State exchequer has been able to garner only Rs 13,151 crore as against its revenue target of Rs 15,200 crore for 2015-16 and is now hoping that the licensees would make up for the shortfall of Rs 2,000 crore in the next 40 days; before March 31 with their annual 'ritual' of hoarding liquor cases before the State budget.
"Before the end of every financial year the licensees bulk up their liquor stocks in anticipation of price hike in the forthcoming budget. We hope to make up for the shortfall of Rs 2,000 crore with the increased purchases before March 31," said an official source.
"But this is not a solution to the problem. With a marginal increase in consumption of IML and beer the Government will either have to fix a reasonable target or consider increasing the Excise duty and reach of all slabs of IML, beer and wine. In 2014 they had to rationalize the target from Rs 14,400 crore to Rs 13,790 crore," said the officer.
Though Karnataka has the highest per capita consumption of liquor in South India at 7.9 litres, there has been a mere 1.26 per cent of physical growth in consumption of IML and 2.86 per cent in beer consumption across the State.
After the arrack ban in 2007 the arrack consumers are left to the mercy of illegal franchisees from where they buy IML at a higher price than the declared maximum retail price (MRP), said the officer.
