Guwahati: The Government of Assam has effected a ‘restructuring of the excise duty’, which will see a 7-8 percent hike in prices of liquor in the state with immediate effect. With this new hike, the department hopes to collect an additional Rs.500 crore, taking the collectiong to over Rs.3000 crore this fiscal.
On the other hand, instead of closing at 10:00 PM as sheduled, liquor stores will now stay open until 11.00 PM.
According to reports, the cost of alcoholic beverages has also increased. The decision to raise the tariff from 4% to 25% was made in order to boost and increase revenue. This time, though, it was decided to allow alcohol sales at malls as well. There will be imported alcohol available.
However, the Excise department kept the duty in beer, wine and the high-end BIO (bottled in origin) liquor unchanged.
“The margins of distributors and retailers won’t change much and as such the burden on the customer will be minimum. On an average, there will be a hike of 7-8 percent, though slab-wise, the hike may range from 4-11 percent,” an Excise official said.
In rum, there will be a 7.6 percent hike on MRP in regular and luxury brands 11 percent, in elegant brands 8 percent, and in premium brands it will be around 5 percent. The exact ‘cost card’ is likely to be prepared by the companies today.
Liquor shops on Saturday closed shutters after the new duty came into effect as the new MRP will have to be affixed in the bottles.