Hyderabad: The sale of beer has witnessed a steep increase across Telangana as people took to the malt beverage to offset soaring summer temperatures in the state.
Though the sale of beer increases every summer, the excise department recorded a decline in beer sales in the previous two summer seasons in 2020 and 2021 as people avoided consuming cold items for a fear of contracting the Coronavirus pandemic.
With people getting back to normalcy, the beer sales reached record levels after the onset of summer in March this year.
Data obtained from the excise department show that the beer sales from March 1 to April 11 increased by 40 per cent when compared with the year-ago period.
In the last 42 days since March 1, nearly 5.30 crore litres of beer were sold while 3.59 crore litres of hard liquor were sold in the Telangana state fetching revenues of Rs 3,614 crore to the excise department.
During the same period last year, 3.78 crore litres of beer and 3.56 crore litres of hard liquor, amounting to Rs 3,302 crore, were sold.
The beer sales have registered an increase of 40.46 per cent, while hard liquor sales witnessed an increase of just 10 per cent.
The rising temperatures in April further boosted high sales.
From April 1 to April 11 in 11 days, 1.39 lakh litres of beer were sold against 74.94 lakh litres of hard liquor.
The corresponding figures last year for beer was 1.11 crore litres and 84.64 lakh litres of hard liquor. From April 6 to April 11, the average daily sale of Rs 100 crore was recorded through wine shops.
