Beer sale sees a high at 130% growth in first quarter

Between April and June, 104.42 lakh carton boxes were sold, compared to 45.38 lakh cartons last year

Karnataka has reported a significant increase in sale of beer with 130% growth in the first quarter of the financial year compared to the corresponding period in 2021-22 when the COVID-19 second wave was raging. In the same period, the excise revenue has increased by 28%.

Statistics released by Excise Department on Friday showed that between April and June this year 104.42 lakh cartons were sold when compared to 45.38 lakh cartons last year, an increase of 59.04 lakh cartons. The sale of beer has been high this year with May and June reporting sale of 34.79 lakh and 32.79 lakh cartons respectively. In comparison, in 2021 May and June, 7.67 lakh and 11.99 lakh cartons had been sold respectively.

Incidentally, the first quarter of 2021-22 was affected by the COVID-19 second wave when a large number of deaths and hospitalisation was reported across the State, and movement of people was restricted while window of liquor sales had been narrowed down besides sales getting restricted to retail sales for some time. 

The sale of Indian Made Liquor, on the other hand, grew by 11.03% in the first quarter with a total sale of 171 lakh cartons against 154 lakh cartons sold in the corresponding period last year. As many as 17.01 lakh cartons were sold more this year. In fact, in April the sale of IML had dipped over the previous year as 53.69 lakh cartons were sold compared to 55.99 lakh cartons sold in April 2021.

In terms of excise revenue, a total of ₹7,574 crore has been collected this quarter, an increase by 28.23% of ₹1,667 crore over the corresponding period of last financial year when ₹5,906 crore had been collected. While the State government has set a target of ₹29,000 crore for revenue collection, the first quarter collection amounts to 26.12 % of the target.