ISWAI’s Economic Report 2026

The Economic Value of the Indian Alcoholic Beverage Industry 2026, released by the International Spirits & Wines Association of India (ISWAI), highlights the significant contribution of India’s alcoholic beverages industry to economic activity, public finance and employment generation. The industry is estimated to have a market size of ₹6.2 lakh crore in CY2025, equivalent to approximately 1.8% of India’s nominal GDP.

The industry's fiscal contribution is particularly significant. It generated an estimated ₹4 lakh crore in tax revenues during FY2024-25, including central and state taxes. This represented approximately 6.6% of India’s total tax collections and 11.3% of indirect tax collections. The sector’s total tax contribution was equivalent to approximately 1.3% of India’s nominal GDP for FY2024-25.

Mr. Sanjit Padhi, CEO, International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI), said, “India’s Alcobev is an industry of scale, and increasingly, it is an industry of value. The next opportunity is to drive premiumisation, strengthen value chains and build globally competitive Indian businesses.”

Alcohol-related revenues account for approximately 19% of the states’ own tax revenues across the 28 states and three Union Territories assessed in the report, with several large states deriving more than 20% of their own tax revenues from the sector. Such predictable revenues contribute to the fiscal capacity of governments to support expenditure across areas including infrastructure, healthcare, education and social welfare.

Mr. Arvind Mehta, Former Secretary, Finance Commission, said, “The numbers tell a compelling story- ₹6.2 lakh crore in economic value, ₹4 lakh crore in taxes, and millions of livelihoods supported. The alcoholic beverages industry is an important contributor to India’s economic story.”

The industry's economic impact begins well before a bottle reaches the consumer. Alcoholic beverages production generates sustained demand for agricultural commodities, including grains, sugarcane, molasses, barley and grapes, creating market opportunities for farmers and strengthening agri-processing value chains.

The report estimates that approximately 24.2 lakh to 25.5 lakh farms across India are engaged in producing agricultural inputs used in the domestic manufacture of alcoholic beverages in CY2025. The sector directly and indirectly supports the livelihoods of an estimated 121.4 lakh to 128.1 lakh farmers.

The report also estimates that 14% to 19% of revenues in the F&B industry are linked to alcohol sales. Restaurants, hotels, pubs, bars and lounges benefit not only from beverage sales but also from the customer footfall and associated spending generated through food, entertainment and hospitality.

Organised off-premise alcoholic beverage retail alone supports an estimated 4.8 lakh jobs, underlining the industry's contribution to entrepreneurship, commerce and employment beyond manufacturing.

The sector currently supports an estimated 9.2 lakh to 11 lakh jobs in alcohol-licensed food and beverage outlets. Its retail footprint is equally substantial, with approximately 1.32 lakh licensed on-premise and off-premise retail outlets selling alcoholic beverages across India.

Across agriculture, food and beverage services, and retail alone, the report estimates that the sector supports approximately 144 lakh jobs, demonstrating the breadth of its employment footprint.

The report finds that premiumisation is increasingly becoming a key growth engine for the industry, with consumers increasingly trading up rather than simply consuming more. The premium segment grew at a 10.2% CAGR between 2022 and 2025, compared with 1.1% for cheap and 1.4% for regular products.

The industry's economic linkages extend into several allied sectors. The report estimates that the alcoholic beverages industry accounts for approximately 70% of India’s container glass demand, with the domestic container glass market estimated at around ₹10,000 crore.

The industry also supports approximately ₹5,800 crore of annual economic activity across transportation and logistics, sectors that are highly labour-intensive. Additional economic activity and employment are generated across manufacturing, packaging, recycling, freight, warehousing and distribution.

These linkages demonstrate the multiplier effect of the sector, with demand generated by alcoholic beverages extending into businesses and supply chains that are not directly classified as part of the beverage industry.

Mr. Mehta, added, “India’s alcoholic beverages industry has achieved significant scale. The opportunity now is to translate that scale into greater value—for consumers, farmers, businesses, state revenues and India’s global exports.”

Despite its significant economic footprint, the industry continues to operate within a fragmented regulatory environment, with substantial state-level variations in taxation, licensing, pricing controls, distribution systems and compliance requirements. The report highlights that addressing these structural challenges will be important to unlocking the industry’s full economic potential and enabling it to create greater value across the ecosystem.

Mr. Padhi, further added, “The report puts numbers behind an industry whose economic contribution is significant and highlights the opportunities to create even greater value for consumers, farmers, businesses and the economy. Beyond the numbers, this report captures an industry in transition evolving in scale, value, consumer demand and its contribution to the economy. For policymakers and investors, understanding the industry today is important; understanding how it is changing is even more important. This report seeks to do both.”

The report highlights that several states have undertaken reforms focused on transparency, digitisation and ease of doing business. Building on these efforts, greater regulatory consistency, rationalised taxation and pricing, digital compliance, modernised distribution and category-neutral regulation can help unlock further investment, strengthen formalisation and support sustained economic growth and value creation.

The Economic Value of the Indian Alcoholic Beverage Industry 2026 report marks an important milestone in building a more comprehensive understanding of India’s alcoholic beverages sector. As a continuation of ISWAI’s 2023 report, the 2026 edition brings together industry participants, domestic and international companies, associations, independent experts and research sources to address the long-standing challenge of fragmented industry data and provide a more cohesive view of the emerging importance of the sector.

The report is intended to help investors and policymakers understand the structure, scale and opportunities within the alcobev industry and provide a lens into the transformation the industry is undergoing.

The International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI) is recognised as an authoritative voice of the Indian Premium Alcoholic Beverage Industry, with a keen insight into government policy. It is instrumental in shaping industry perspectives, driving best practices and promoting responsible use of alcoholic beverages.

Members of ISWAI include global leaders Bacardi, Brown Forman, Campari Group, Diageo-United Spirits, Edrington, John Distilleries, Mast-Jägermeister, Moet Hennessy, Pernod Ricard, Suntory Global and William Grant & Sons. Together, they have almost 98% of their business produced in India through Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), Bottled-in-India (BII) products and Indian Single Malts, thereby making ISWAI strong proponents of the ‘Make in India’ ideology and generating employment and business opportunities, both directly and in ancillary services and industries, across states.

The unwavering focus of ISWAI has consistently been on charting the ideal course for the Alcohol Industry and advocating responsible consumption through the principle: ‘if you choose to drink, drink better, not more’.