If you have planned to welcome New Year by chugging beer, then you will have to put your plans on hold because state excise department hiked excise duty in the production of mild beer. However, this has not gone down well with alcohol production companies who are demanding the state excise department to roll back the decision. The owners of beer production companies have demanded the state to permit them to increase beer prices or cut off the excise duty.
As per reports, the state has neither reduced the excise duty nor permitted beer companies to increase the prices, reason which, the beer company owners have stopped the production of mild beer, since three weeks. Maharashtra Wine Merchant Associaton’s president Dilip Gianani informed that the due to this change, no mild beer is being sold in the markets. In fact, companies like Kingfisher, LP, Tuborg and Carlsberg have stopped their production of mild beers. Gianani further added that beer companies have also reduced the production of strong beer.
Talking about the same exclusively to Mumbai Live, Ashwini Joshi, state excise commissioner, said that not all companies but few companies have stopped their production. However, she did not comment about the issues relating to the demands put forward by the companies.
For the past two weeks, only 3 lakh beer cases have arrived in Mumbai whereas, on a monthly basis, around 15 lakh beer cases used to arrive
President of Aahar association, Aadarsh Shetty, said that around 30 per cent of people consuming alcohol, mostly in the age bracket of 21 to 35 years, prefer beer as it has less alcohol content and also benefits health. Lack of beer in the market will definitely affect the sales across restaurants in the city.
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