Industry bodies representing the alcohol sector have written to the government to consider opening of wine shops, allow home delivery of alcoholic beverages and e-tailing of liquor as Indian states are collectively suffering a revenue loss of about ₹700 crore a day owing to no sales of alcoholic beverages during the lockdown.
Most states earn about 15-30% of revenue, or a total of ₹2.48 lakh crore, from the alcohol industry. Maharashtra alone will lose about ₹2,000 crore revenue in a month in excise duty and other taxes.
In FY2019-20, Maharashtra generated a revenue of ₹24,000 crore, Uttar Pradesh generated ₹26,000 crore, Telangana ₹21,500 crore, Karnataka ₹20,000 crore, West Bengal ₹11,874 crore, Rajasthan ₹7,800 crore and Punjab generated ₹5,600 crore from sale of alcoholic beverages.
Huge financial pressure
“Every State was already under heavy pressure financially and excise duty on alcohol is an important revenue source for them, which does not exist at the moment. Earlier this week, many States raised bonds from the market at 150-200 basis points (bps) higher than government securities, compared to a 60-70-bps spread earlier,” said Amrit Kiran Singh, chairman, International Spirits and Wine Association of India (ISWAI).
ISWAI is the representative body of the national and international spirits & wine companies having business establishments in India.
