Noida consumed over 2 crore liquor bottles this yr
Kapil Datta
Noida residents consumed over two crore bottles of country-made liquor, Indian-made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer. The excise department has collected Rs 242 crore as excise revenue from January till today. The sale value of liquor was around Rs 315 crore.
District Excise Officer Mahindera Pal told Hindustan Times, "From January till December 22, the total revenue collection was Rs 242 crore. Our revenue has increased by 30 per cent. In the remaining six days of the festive season, we expect to collect a revenue of around Rs 15 crore."
"The number of people buying high-end liquor, whose prices range between Rs 2,000 to Rs 9,000 per bottle, has increased by over 30 per cent," Pal added.
This year, 53.10 lakh bottles of IMFL, 97.30 lakh bottles of beer and 58.98 lakh bottles of Country-made liquor were consumed.
Another rising trend is that of canned beer. "Engineering and management students prefer canned beer," said Pal.
Then there is the case of farmers who got crores in lieu of land. "Their tastes too have changed. Instead of country-made liquor, they have increasingly begun to opt for foreign liquor," Pal added.
Pal also says that incidence of female consuming liquor too has risen by 30 per cent. He cites the increasing presence of call centres and multinational companies in Noida as its reason.
"Often liquor is smuggled into Noida from Delhi and Gurgaon where it is cheaper. From April to November this year, we have registered nearly 1,086 cases of liquor smuggling and seized 27,700 litres of alcohol. We have also arrested 1,114 people in these cases," said Pal.