 "Nitin Agarwal explains how reforms have helped UP to increase excise revenue")
A key aspect of Uttar Pradesh’s improved finances is the increase in its revenue from excise by nearly four times in the nine years of the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, from a little over ₹14,000 crore in 2016-17 to ₹52,573 crore in 2024-25, and is on course to be almost ₹63,000 crore by the end of FY26.
As the Minister of State (Independent Charge) Excise and Prohibition since March, 2022, Nitin Agarwal has led the turnaround in the state government’s increase in revenues from excise. In his fourth term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh from the Hardoi Sadar constituency, Agarwal has a degree in Master of Business Administration (MBA) and has spearheaded such initiatives as the UP Excise Citizen App to ensure transparency in liquor sales.
Delivering the inaugural address at the Business Standard Samriddhi event in Lucknow, Agarwal credited the turnaround in the state’s excise department’s revenue growth to improved law and order. He said the excise department has plugged loopholes in its processes, ensured transparency and accountability to play its role in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s target of making UP a $1 trillion economy.
Agarwal said UP is now the country’s topmost state in production of molasses and ethanol. He said the state government has cracked down on illicit liquor. “Not one life has been lost in UP since 2017 because of illicit liquor, which is significant as it is the country’s most populated state with over 240 million people,” Agarwal said, adding that bootlegging from neighbouring states has also been curtailed, and the liquor industry has grown by 13-14 per cent annually because of the state government’s industry-friendly policies.
Agarwal credited the Chief Minister’s policies for having transformed UP from the country’s crime capital to its growth engine. “I believe it is a massive transformation. It was not easy. When this government assumed power in 2017, we faced significant challenges. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth was sluggish and crime was rampant. The turnaround since then has been massive and historic,” he said.
Agarwal said the government has checked crime and created basic infrastructure since 2017. UP now has the country’s biggest network of expressways, and it has also improved inland water and air connectivity. The state has 16 airports, including four international airports, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon inaugurate the state’s fifth international airport in Jewar, Agarwal said, adding that once law and order and basic infrastructure are put in place, it motivates the industry to invest, which has happened in UP.
In 2017, the GSDP of Uttar Pradesh was Rs 13.3 trillion, which has increased to ₹30 trillion, and by the end of FY26, our target is to increase it to Rs 35 trillion, the 44-year-old Agarwal said at a well-attended event in the state’s capital. He said the manufacturing sector contributed ₹2.81 trillion to the state’s gross value addition, more than a two and a half times increase to the 2017 level.
Agarwal said challenges facing UP’s exports are that it is a landlocked state, but its exports have increased from ₹84,000 crore in 2017 to ₹1.86 trillion, and it has reduced unemployment from 6.4 per cent to 2.4 per cent in the last eight and a half years.
“We have created 800,000 jobs in the government sector, and nine million in the private sector,” Agarwal said. He said as a result of the government’s policies, the increase in the state’s per capita income has been unprecedented, from ₹54,500 in 2017 to ₹108,000 in 2025.
The number of industries, including small and medium enterprises, has increased from 13,000 in 2015-17 to 27,295, he said. The state government’s investor summits have led to investment proposals worth ₹45 trillion, of which groundbreaking ceremonies have taken place of ₹15 trillion, Agarwal said.
“We are now number two in the country in the ease of doing business rankings, and the second fastest growing economy in GSDP after Maharashtra,” the minister said, attributing the progress to transparent governance, fixing accountability, and the leadership’s vision. He said not just the industrial sector, but agriculture and services sectors have also witnessed growth.
Agarwal said the target to make UP a developed state by 2047 would involve accelerating the growth of the state’s manufacturing sector, investments in high value manufacturing, such as electronics, semiconductor, automobile and creating enabling infrastructure for industrial clusters of semiconductors, electronics and automobile manufacturing to come up.
A mega textile hub, which is to come up between Hardoi and Lucknow will be a step in that direction and the government is looking at developing leather and footwear hubs.
Earlier this year, the Uttar Pradesh Excise Policy 2025-26 came into effect under which separate foreign liquor and beer shops are being replaced by composite shops. “Under the new policy, separate foreign liquor and beer shops are being replaced by composite shops, increasing the retail density without increasing the number of shops,” the UP Excise Department said in a statement.
The Uttar Pradesh excise department garnered fresh investment proposals of more than ₹4,000 crore to set up greenfield and brownfield distilleries and alcoholic beverage units in the state. As many as 55 excise department projects worth ₹11,000 crore have so far been launched. As many as 19 such projects worth ₹2,340 crore have already been commissioned, while 27 other projects are in the process of being set up. Earlier, the excise department had signed 135 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth ₹40,000 crore with private companies at the UP Global Investors Summit 2023.
Uttar Pradesh recorded excise revenue of ₹35,144 crore in the first eight months (April-November) of FY26, that is 55 per cent of the annual target of the state excise department of ₹63,000 crore in revenue.
Such revenue increased from around ₹17,000 crore in FY17 to ₹53,000 crore in FY25. The ₹35,144 crore collected in the April-November period in FY26 is ₹4,742 crore or 16 per cent higher than the revenue collected in the corresponding period in FY25.
This growth can be attributed to the rationalisation of the excise duty structure, transparent auction of liquor shops and crackdown on inter-state liquor smuggling.
According to the minister, the department collected more than ₹4,486 crore in revenue in November 2025, compared to ₹4,071 crore the same month the previous year. The growth is expected to help the state’s capital and revenue expenditure as it pursues its goal of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
