Bengaluru: While going soft on beer and wine, CM Siddaramaiah has decided to rake in an additional Rs 1540 crore by marginally increasing Additional Excise Tax on hard liquors, like whiskey, rum, gin and vodka.
In the budget presented on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah has given a target of Rs 18,050 crore to the Excise Department, as against last year's target of Rs 16,510 crore. For the consumers of cheap liquor, the price difference would be Rs 2.60 per quarter. As the brand goes up, the price of every quarter bottle goes up to Rs Rs 200-300. Since the sale of beer and wine are going down despite the harsh summer, the government has decided to spare them from the excise duty net.
But the state government has decided to withdraw the Administrative Fee of Rs2 per litre on export and Re 1 per litre on import of spirits (including Ethanol).
At the moment, there are 17 declared slabs of Additional Excise Duty, of which, the duty on three slabs will be increased by 3 per cent. Rest of the slabs will see a hike of 10 per cent, with effect from April 1.
The Additional Excise Duty is calculated as per declared price per carton box, which starts from Rs 449 per carton. The three slabs that would witness hike of 10 per cent include the price between Rs 600 and Rs 699, Rs 1200 and Rs1299 and all.
