Despite the dismal economic showing throughout the lockdown in the previous fiscal year leaving the state somewhat cash-strapped, the tipplers of Karnataka came through in helping the state’s excise department surpass its revenue targets.
The budget had estimated a revenue of ₹22,700 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal as against ₹21,583 crore revenue generated for the previous 2019-20 fiscal. The target set by the state government seemed extremely difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish.
However, in an unremitting show of dipsomania, the state’s booze-guzzling citizenry held the fort and made sure that the Excise department was able to rake in a revenue amounting to a whopping ₹23,131 crore ― which is over ₹400 crore more than its revenue target.
This great success was despite the fact that the entire month of April 2020 ran dry with only ₹1.06 crore worth of liquor being sold the entire month, due to the stringent coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown.
According to data available with the excise department, while the sales were low in the first half of 2020 owing to the lockdown, there was an increase in sales post-June. The department saw an average revenue of about ₹2,000 crore a month in the second half of the year.
According to reports, a total of 583 lakh carton boxes of Indian made liquor (IML) and 237 lakh carton boxes of beer were sold across the state in 2020-21.
The Karnataka government has fixed a revenue collection target of ₹24,580 crore for the excise department for 2021-22.
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