E-Paper
Tipplers to pay more from April 1
THERE?S BAD news for tipplers in Uttar Pradesh ? they will have to pay more for their drinks in the fiscal 2005-06 as the State Cabinet today hiked the annual target of excise revenue by Rs. 320 crores from the present year?s Rs. 2880 crores to be collected by the end of this month.
THERE’S BAD news for tipplers in Uttar Pradesh – they will have to pay more for their drinks in the fiscal 2005-06 as the State Cabinet today hiked the annual target of excise revenue by Rs. 320 crores from the present year’s Rs. 2880 crores to be collected by the end of this month.
When the Cabinet’s policy of hiking excise revenue comes into effect from April 1, 2005, it could make Indian made foreign liquor, country liquor, beer and other toxicants costlier and fetch additional revenue of Rs.320 crores to the State exchequer in 2005-06.
The UP Cabinet at its meeting here today finalised the State’s excise policy which is a repeat of last year’s policy. However, there is a rider to the policy that the Excise Department would have to collect an additional Rs. 320 crores or about 10 per cent more excise revenue over the corresponding period of the current fiscal of Rs. 2880 crores.
Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who presided over the Cabinet meeting, ruled out objections over the hike from officials of the Excise Department who thought the target was too steep. The CM pointed out that his government had committed to the Planning Commission to raise resources following which the Commission hiked the State’s annual outlay for 2005-06 to Rs. 13,500 crores or about 42 per cent higher allocation over the outlay of this year.
The Excise Department has now two options to meet the new target of Rs. 3200 crores – to hike the auction rate of country liquor and foreign made wines and/or to raise the number of vends in the rural and urban areas. Besides, the department also has the option to hike prices of all brands of beer and other toxicants like ‘bhang’.
The department’s estimated revenue from country liquor shops/vends stood at Rs. 1545 crores and from Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) at Rs. 789 crores. Besides, Rs. 131 crores from the sale of beer and Rs. 235 crores from other sources of revenue were collected by continued on P4
