Restrictions imposed around the New Year and Christmas revelry in the light of COVID-19 seem to have brought down sales of liquor in the last eight days of December though excise revenue has seen an increase.
While ₹844.59 crore worth of liquor had been sold across the State between December 24 and December 31, 2020, it was less compared to the corresponding period in 2019 when ₹878.25 crore worth of liquor had been sold. However, the excise revenue collected from sale during this period went up from ₹500 crore in 2019 to ₹519.21 crore in 2020.
Data released by Excise Department shows a steep fall in sale of Indian Made Liquor (IML) during this period. If in 2019 as many as 18.46 lakh carton boxes had been sold, it dropped to 14.14 lakh carton boxes in 2020. However, the sale of beer in this period went up from 7.91 lakh carton boxes in 2019 to 9 lakh carton boxes in 2020.
In Bengaluru Urban district, a total of ₹283.77 crore worth of liquor was sold between December 24 and December 31, 2020, less than ₹285.45 crore worth of liquor sold in the corresponding period last year. The sale of IML saw a steep fall from 4.39 lakh carton boxes in December 2019 to 3.57 lakh carton boxes in December 2020. However, the sale of beer went up from 2.72 lakh carton boxes in December 2019 to 2.89 lakh carton boxes in December 2020.
