This summer, the sale of beer across Karnataka more than doubled over the previous year with the big jump in sales coming during May when the State sizzled under intense heat and later received spells of rainfall. The excise revenue collection grew by 27% in the first two months of 2022–23 financial year over the corresponding period in 2021–22.
While the Indian Made Liquor (IML) sales grew by 12.21%, it was the beer sales that clocked a huge growth of 114.53% in April and May compared with the previous year.
If 33.39 lakh cartons of beer were sold during April and May 2021, the sale of beer during May this year alone was 34.79 lakh cartons. The sale of beer skyrocketed to 34.79 lakh cartons as against 7.67 lakh cartons sold last May, showing an increase by a whopping 353.59%. April saw a growth by 43.23% when 36.84 lakh cartons were sold as against 25.72 lakh cartons sold in April 2021. The cumulative sales of beer in April/May this year was 71.63 lakh cartons as against 33.39 lakh cartons last year, reporting 114.53% growth.
IML sales
In contrast, the sale of IML dipped in April compared with the corresponding period last year. While 55.99 lakh cartons had been sold in April 2021, it dipped by 4.11% to 53.69 lakh cartons this year. However, the IML sales picked up in May to 58.14 lakh cartons as against 43.67 lakh cartons last May, reporting a monthly growth of 33.13%. As much as 111.83 lakh cartons of IML were sold this summer as against 99.66 lakh cartons sold last year, reporting a growth of 12.21%.
When the biggest growth in sale of liquor came during May, the excise duty of ₹2,276 crore was collected as against ₹1,474 crore in May 2021, marking an increase by ₹802 crore or a growth by 54%. In April, data shows that the excise revenue collection grew by a modest 9% with a collection of ₹2,402 crore as against the last year collection of ₹2,202 crore.
In terms of excise revenue collection, ₹4,678 crore has been collected this April/May as against ₹3,676 crore collected last year, showing an increase in collection by ₹1,001 crore or by 27.25%. A note from the department said that the excise revenue collected in the two months amount to 16.13% of the total annual target for 2022–23.
