Buying alcohol in Mumbai is always a big burn to your pockets as compared to other places around India, alcohol is slightly expensive in the financial capital. But soon, beer lovers will have a reason to smile as the prices are going to get slashed.
After seeing a drastic drop of about 27 per cent in the sales of light liquors such as beer, the Government of Maharashtra has decided to change things.
According to reports, the excise duty on mild and strong beers will be reduced from 235 per cent of manufacturing cost to 175 per cent on strong beer. Moreover, prices of breezers will also be slashed, as the excise duty will go down substantially from 300 per cent to 200 per cent. This means that your favourite beer brands are going to be around ₹15 cheaper than they used to be.
In 2017, 27.59 crore litre of beer was sold last summer. This year, the number fell to a drastic 5.91 crore litres between March and May. In October last year, the excise duty of beer had been increased by 17 per cent, but the retail beer price was made to stay the same. Incurring losses, the manufacturers stopped supplying beer, which led to a beer shortage in Maharashtra in December. To resolve the issue, the Government of Maharashtra finally had to increase the MRP of mild and strong beers by 0.25 and 0.35 per cent respectively, which meant your beer was now costing you ₹10-15 more than before.
The state had earned a whopping revenue of ₹13,448 crore from alcohol last year, which was 9.4 per cent more than the revenue earned in 2016, according to Mumbai Mirror. Some 30 percent of the state excise duty comes from the sale of beer. The revenue target for the state this year is ₹15,343, which probably explains why prices for beer price and breezers have been slashed to encourage its sale.
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