Alcoholic drinks will cost more from Saturday as the Telangana government decided to tweak the excise structure by 10 to 25 per cent. The tweaking of booze excise rates will produce a few hundred crores for the almost empty state coffers. Telangana’s revenues are in the doldrums and there is a deficit of Rs 3,000 crores due to demonetisation.
Prices have been raised by Rs 15 to Rs 20 for the ordinary liquor, whereas the prices of more expensive brands of liquor have been hiked by Rs 80 to Rs 120. Premium liquor brands will cost the buyer Rs 200 more. Prices of all beers have been raised by Rs 10.
The excise department says they only removed some irregularities found in the pricing of costlier brands. They also claim that while the proposal had come a long time ago, it was approved just recently leading everyone to believe that the government is looking for finance during the cash crunch time.
The government obviously has been smart and increased the rates after procuring liquor stocks at the old rates from the manufacturers.
Telangana is third in South India in terms of liquor consumption. The state government, which was clear about where their moolah was coming from, has given out indiscriminate number of licenses for starting bars even without taking population as a criterion.
Now with the number districts increasing from 10 to 31, the government is likely to rake in more since there will be more bars and more liquor outlets. The number of pubs in the state is set to increase from 547 to 600.
The government is also keen on increasing night life and hence has given approvals for a number of microbreweries. However, the excise department has handed out strict guidelines to bar owners, in the context of the recent drunk driving cases in Hyderabad, where several people were killed in two separate accidents.
