More people in Maharashtra are buying liquor from wine shops instead of gulping down a few pegs in bars or permits rooms.
More people in Maharashtra are buying liquor from wine shops instead of gulping down a few pegs in bars or permits rooms.
The reason: high excise duty makes drinking in bars and restaurants a costly affair.
Last year’s steep hike has pushed alcohol prices up and brought down liquor sales in bars, say excise department officials and restaurant owners.
Traditionally bars have accounted for around 30-40% of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) sales and 50-60% of beer sales, a senior excise official said. Retail sales of country liquor are around 60-70%.
“The volume of sales in bars has gone down,” he said. It is economical for drinkers to buy a bottle of alcohol from a wine shop. Compared to wine shops, drinking in restaurants is expensive because it is not sold in bottles, which also means the sale price is more than the maximum retail price, he said.
Sudhakar Shetty, who heads the Association of Hotels and Restaurants, said liquor sales in restaurants had declined by 40% because of high excise duties and various taxes such as service tax and VAT, the burden of which is passed on to consumers. Compared to last year, liquor prices have gone up by 50-60%.
“The common man cannot afford to drink in a restaurant; so, he prefers to buy a bottle of his favourite drink from a wine shop,” a wine shop owner from South Mumbai said.
“Drinking at home is always cheaper,” D Dutta, a regular drinker, said. Apart from the cost of the drink, overhead charges are levied in restaurants and bars/permit rooms, he said. “For Rs870, I get a bottle of whisky from a wine shop. If I were to drink in a bar or hotel, a peg would cost about Rs160-180.”
In Maharashtra, country liquor has an excise duty of Rs95 per proof litre (up by 46%), IMFL Rs240 per proof litre (up by a minimum of 33%), mild beer Rs33 per bulk litre and strong beer Rs42 per bulk litre (up by 30-50%), the senior excise official said.
In 2010-11, Maharashtra consumed 32.96 crore litres of country liquor, 15.55 crore of IMFL and 29.68 crore litres of beer.
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