As the New Year shocker, the Telangana Government has raised the prices of Liquor in the state. The price hike is said to be up by 10 percent. Liquor uptake has gone up by 20 percent in the last one-week, netting Rs 200 crore additional revenue this month.
The price hike came into effect on Tuesday night but the consumers came to know about the increased price only on Wednesday when the liquor shops opened. The prices are expected to increase by around five to seven percent.
For 180 ml liquor bottle, tipplers have to pay at least 10 percent more depending on the brand and medium of the liquor. The price hike order was issued by excise department principle secretary Somesh Kumar.
State Excise and Prohibition Department has set Rs 1,200 crore revenue target in December this year. With the sudden increase in the liquor sales, the department has projected that the revenue will go up to Rs 1,600 crore to Rs 1,700 crore.
Officials said that post price revision, there will be a certain difference in the issue price and maximum retail price rounding off on stocks in inventories of government IMFL depots as on Dec 26 and stocks that will be dispatched by manufacturers after the revision.
In order to avoid dual pricing, it is ordered that the difference between revised and pre-revised price will be collected from licensees to whom such stock is issued as a one-time special retail excise tax.
The stock with us, in TSBCL godowns and stocks ready for dispatch with TSBCL, will have old MRP. Now, when we buy new stock at the changed price from Wednesday, it might get mixed with our existing stock. This will create confusion,” said D Venkateshwara Rao, president of Telangana Wine Dealers Association.