By IANS,
Chandigarh: The Punjab government Tuesday announced its new excise policy (2010-11) targeting a revenue of over Rs.2,501 crore with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal describing it as a “historic increase”.
The revenue to be generated in next fiscal’s excise policy will be nearly Rs.502 crore more than the expected revenue generation of Rs.2,000 crore targeted for the present year (2009-10).
The state government, through the excise and taxation department, is aiming at a “substantial increase in sales” after getting a vend-wise survey conducted based on actual sales at each of the vends in 2009-10. The government is expecting the volume of sales to go up in the next financial year.
While the quota for country liquor has been increased by 15 percent, the quota for Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) remains unchanged.
The prices of country liquor and IMFL will also go up marginally, ranging from Rs.5 to Rs.10 per bottle, a state government spokesman said after the policy was approved by the Punjab cabinet here Tuesday.
Badal said there was merely a two percent increase in the number of vends that would be opened in the year 2010-11.
To check the unhealthy policies of traders to undercut each other, the department proposes to fix the minimum retail price of every brand of liquor, be it IMFL or country liquor.