Kolkata: The revenues of the state government from liquor sale in this year’s Durga Puja is said to have surpassed the sales figure of the previous year with Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) topping the chart, forcing country liquor to the backseat.
Every year, the festive season is one period when the state looks up to bag robust excise revenues from liquor sales. This year seems to have taken the sales figure a notch higher than 2022 Puja with revenue surpassing Rs 600 crore over five days of Puja, sources said.
This amounted to at least 15 per cent more revenue compared to the same period the previous year. The achievement is mainly dedicated to the decision of ‘zero dry days’ by the state. Such a decision was taken to ensure that the black market doesn’t end up spoiling the revenues of the state.
Sources said Excise department figures indicate that sales reached their peak on Saptami and Navami. The earning on Saptami is said to be over Rs 150 crore while on Navami it reached around Rs 200 crore, making it the day which registered the highest sales.
It was learnt that liquor stock in the IMFL category witnessed the maximum sale with country liquor taking a backseat. The demand for foreign liquor was overwhelming, a fact that was also corroborated by some of the leading wine retailers in the city. The demand for beer, however, dropped due to favourable weather conditions. As per retailers, the demand for whiskey was the highest. The Excise department seeks to clock healthy revenues this year as the earnings in this financial year, starting from April till present time, has surpassed Rs 10,000 crore, sources said.
Ahead of Puja, the Excise department had announced that wine shop owners could choose to keep their shops open either on Ashtami or Dashami but subject to permission from the department. Until 2015, most off-shops used to remain closed on Ashtami, and on Dashami after 5 pm, shutters used to come down. Further, Thursdays were considered dry days and if any such Thursday used to crop up during puja then shops remained shut. But, this changed from 2016.
Most off-shop owners said that there was no question of keeping the shops closed since it is the festival days when skyrocketing sales are expected. Many of them said that the shops are run by staff in shifts. Hence, there was no problem even when some of the staff took off on a specific day
during Puja.