In what has surprised the liquor industry, the overall rate of growth in sale of liquor and excise collection has been weak this financial year despite rationalisation in the cost of IML (Indian Made Liquor) to make the price competitive. While IML sales have been down by 1.02% over the corresponding period of last year, beer sales has shown only 8.22% growth, raising doubts about meeting the annual excise revenue target by the end of last quarter.

Against a total sale of 533.26 lakh carton boxes of IML in the first nine months of the last financial year, sale this year is at 527.82 lakh carton boxes. However, the sale of beer has increased from 324.40 lakh carton boxes to 351.07 lakh carton boxes this fiscal.

So far, the total excise revenue collection has been ₹26,633 crore, a 4.63% rise from ₹25,455 crore collected last year. The total collection is about 69.13% of the target of ₹38,525 crore set for the financial year 2024-2025. Last year, the State had met 73.78% of the target of ₹34,500 crore by the end of December.

Though the Finance Department is expecting rationalisation of liquor rates to show results over four quarters, general secretary of Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association B. Govindraj Hedge said the retailers have no clue over IML sales still not picking up. “Even in December, when sales have to be good, we have not had satisfactory sales. The government also extended credit facilities to the retailers to lift the stock due to bank holidays that would have otherwise hurt business.”

The excise revenue collection in December this year has been about ₹2,900.14 crore, down by 11.78% or about ₹387.24 crore compared to ₹3,287.38 crore collected in December 2023. This despite a 10.18% growth or a collection of ₹774.53 crore excise revenue between December 23 and December 31, which was boosted by Christmas holidays and New Year revelry. Last year, during the same period, the excise revenue had seen dip by 5.58% over the revenue collection in 2022-2023.

Though the sale of beer has registered 8.22% growth with a total of 351.07 lakh carton boxes sold this year, the third quarter sales has shown negative growth. While 113.15 lakh carton boxes had been sold between October and December 2023, the total beer sales significantly dropped to 108.34 lakh carton boxes this year. The big drop has been in December when sale of beer dropped by 4.14 lakh carton boxes. Incidentally, another round of beer price revision that had been proposed earlier, has been kept on hold.