State excise revenues drop 11% in Q1, FY12

Karnataka’s excise revenues have dropped 11 per cent to Rs 1,937.4 crore for the first quarter of the present fiscal compared to the year ago period. During the first three months of last fiscal, the state collected Rs 2,175.8 crore from excise, the department said in a statement.

The state’s revenue from the sale of Indian-made foreign liquor during the month of April 2011 were Rs 647.4 crore, up by 12.2 per cent over the corresponding month last year. In May 2011, the collections were up by 6.4 per cent at Rs 694.6 crore compared to Rs 652.6 crore in May 2010. However, the excise collections have seen a drop of 37 per cent to Rs 595.9 crore in June 2011 as against Rs 946.6 crore collected in June 2010.

During the fiscal 2010-11, the excise collections stood at Rs 8,345.3 crore, showing a growth of 19 per cent over the previous year. Encouraged by the growth last year, the department of excise is aiming at a growth of 20 per cent in the current fiscal.

During the fiscal 2010-11, the sales of IMFL touched 46.30 million boxes as against 38.99 million boxes in the previous year, a year on year growth of 18.7 per cent. Similarly, the sale of beer during the last fiscal was 18.42 million boxes compared to 14.18 million boxes, a year on year growth of 29.9 per cent over the previous year.

During the year, the department conducted raids on 59,124 illicit distillation centres in the state, registered 10,924 cases and arrested 4,597 persons. The department has seized 69,984 boxes of IMFL, 116,903 boxes of beer, 106,071 boxes of molasses, 107,058 boxes of arrack. It destroyed 656,301 boxes of country liquor and confiscated 594 vehicles.

The excise department also seized 1,038 kg marijuana and 1,070 marijuana trees from 132 persons.

The state excise department has issued 463 licenses to state-owned Mysore Sales International Ltd (MSIL) to open retail sales outlets, of which already 224 outlets have been opened. The state government banned the manufacture and sale of country liquor in 2006.

In Karnataka, 34 molasses distilleries, 37 IMFL companies, five breweries and seven wineries are functioning.