Liquor Consumption In Bangalore Has Gone Down

Liquor Consumption In Bangalore Has Gone Down

Fear Of Losing Permit Forces Wine Shop Owners To Pay Renewal Fee

Anil Kumar M | TNN


Pub City losing its fizz
Bangalore: Citing a boost in liquor sales across the state, the government hiked the licence renewal fee for wine shops. But consumption in Bangalore has come down by as much as 20%.
With the fresh excise year starting on Wednesday, the department has recorded FY 2008-09 as having witnessed one of the least amounts of liquor consumption within the city. The target during the year was 1.01 crore boxes of Indian Made Liquor (IML) in Bangalore, but only 84 lakh boxes were sold. “Liquor consumption has come down by 20% here. But consumption has gone up in other parts of the state,” a department official said.
The trend could very well be due to the economic slowdown. Bars, including those in star hotels, have recorded less sales ever since recession set in. There are fewer big parties, and the number of people seeking occasional liquor permits have also gone down.
Consumption level had exceeded the target the previous two years. While the target was to sell 85 lakh boxes of IML in 2007-08, the achievement was more than 86 lakh.
A box of IML costs Rs 1,110. With the government unable to sell nearly 17 lakh boxes, the revenue deficit from Bangalore is estimated at around Rs 187 crore. This loss is, however, compensated by overwhelming sales in other areas. The target set for other regions was 2.64 crore boxes.
This is the reason why the government last week hiked licence-renewal fee for wine shops and bar-andrestaurants in town municipal and town panchayat areas. Now, the annual licence fee in these regions is Rs 3 lakh for wine shops (CL-2s) and Rs 3.2 lakh (CL-9s) for bar-and-restaurants.
“While other revenue-earning departments like motor vehicles tax, commercial tax and stamps and registration duty have shown decline in collection, excise is the only department which has shown 20% more than the targeted revenue this year,” sources said. The target was Rs 5,626 crore, but achievement at the year-end stood at Rs 5,792.58 crore.
Licences renewed,
but deadlock
continues TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: The stalemate between wine merchants and the government, over reducing licence fee, continues. But the fear of losing their permit has forced many wine shop owners to pay the renewal fee.
With Tuesday being the last date to pay, more than 90% of licences have been renewed for 2009-10. As the government had given an informal assurance of reducing the fee, only 120 of the 2,400 liquor shop owners had come for renewal on Monday.
The Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association on Tuesday met chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and urged him to reduce the fee and increase profit margin for the traders. However, no concrete decision was taken. Anticipating last-minute rush, the Karnataka State Beverages Corporation had made arrangements for the licensees to remit fee through electronic fund transfer.
As only a handful of shops came forward on Monday, the government had already geared up for a situation of renewal rate falling below 50%. Excise commissioner Yogendra Tripati
had asked his deputy commissioners to prepare for a contingency plan, like the government itself having to sell liquor through agencies or mobile units to meet the budget target.
According to Karnataka Excise (Sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor) Rules, 1968, renewal of permits should be done at least a month before expiry, failing which wine shops and bars will be forced to shut.
After meeting Yeddyurappa, association general secretary B Govindraj Hegde said they will continue to fight as revenue for wine merchants has dropped drastically.