Alcohol sales drop in city, affect excise dept’s revenue

According to the data released by the Mumbai branch of the state excise department, liquor sales in the city showed a decline with beer and wine consumption falling

According to the data released by the Mumbai branch of the state excise department, liquor sales in the city showed a decline with beer and wine consumption falling by 5.18% and 5.31% respectively in 2019 as compared to the previous year. Drop in the sale of alcohol has affected the revenue earned by the state excise department. The department witnessed almost 5 % drop in revenues for Mumbai city.

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In the nine months from April 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019, the city consumed 1.41 crore litres of beer, which is 7.70 lakh litres less than what was consumed during the same period in 2018.

The sale of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) such as whiskey has shown a marginal decline of 1.02% while country liquor sales were only 0.53% less compared to the previous year. IMFL sale between April 2019 and December 2019 was 93.94 lakh litres as compared to 93 lakh litres in 2018. And the sale of country liquor recorded 76.98 lakh litres in 2019 against 77.39 lakh litres in 2018. In the case of wine, sales from January to December in 2019 was 4.80 lakh of litres as against 5.06 lakh litres in 2018.

“People tend to celebrate vacations outside the city and this might be one of the reasons behind the drop in the sale of liquor this year. A continuous hike in the prices of beer has also negatively affected sales,” said an excise official.

Gurbaxish Kohli, president of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India, said, “There has been a decline in the sale of liquor for last two years. GST and rise in excise duty are affecting the industry.”