Sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) has come down by 31.71 lakh cases during April-December 2017 compared to the corresponding period the previous year.
The sale during the nine months from April 2017 was 237.10 lakh cases compared to the 268.81 lakh cases during the same period in 2016, Minister for Excise T.P. Ramakrishnan told the Assembly in reply on Thursday.
The number of abkari cases registered had also come down from 23,876 in 2016 to 21,372 in 2017, while the cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) had gone up from 2,989 in 2016 to 5,946 in 2017.
District-wise break up showed that Thiruvanananthapuram tops the list with 2,059 abkari cases registered in 12 months from January last year, while Thrissur tops with 673 NDPS cases.
The Excise Department had obtained a revenue of ₹1,969.26 crore through sale of liquor in 2016. In the current fiscal, the revenue till December 2017 was ₹1,548.25 crore. As many as 12 lakh consumers reach Bevco outlets daily.
As many as 64 FL3 (bar) licences had been issued by the government. Even after the new Abkari policy was rolled out by the government on June 13 last year, 415 bars across the State were remaining closed. The highest number of 111 bars remaining closed are in Ernakulam district followed by 92 in Thrissur district. The Minister said the failure of these bars to adhere to the Supreme Court’s distance criteria in NH and SH corridors, failure to upgrade properties to three-star classification and above and delay in applying for renewal of licence are the reasons.
The Minister informed the House that the Excise Commissioner had given report on starting micro brewery in hotels and that the government had not taken a final decision.
