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Top booze brands become dearer in cash-starved Goa

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Hard liquor and beer, especially spirits imported from outside Goa, will now cost more for tourists visiting the coastal state, as the tourist season begins.

As a first step towards arresting the resource crunch, Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza has hiked excise duty on Indian made foreign liquor and beer imported from outside the state.

The local liquor manufacturers were, however, exempted, amidst controversy.

The hike on liquor made outside the state is Rs 5 per proof litre -- IMFL attracted an excise duty of Rs 35 per proof litre while beer costs Rs 9 per proof litre earlier. The hike may accrue around Rs 10 million additional revenue for the government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is supporting Dr de Souza's coalition government from outside, however has termed the hike 'a scandalous act on the part of the chief minister'. ''He is protecting the local liquor lobby in a manipulative manner,'' alleges BJP leader Manohar Parrikar.

According to him, local liquor manufacturers are already exempt from the 24 per cent sales tax. The present hike only on imported liquor is unwarranted in such a situation, he feels.

Goa manufactures around 35 million bulk litres of IMFL and beer, compared to hardly around 2.6 million bulk litres of IMFL and beer imported from outside the state, which is around seven per cent of the total liquor sold in Goa.

The excise duty collection on local liquor is normally around Rs 1.10 billion, while the duty collection from the imported liquor brands is around Rs 50 million.

Countering Parrikar's argument, Dr de Souza claims it was necessary to plug the loopholes and curb the liquor smuggling and duplication. But the BJP legislator feels the hike would boost the illegal activity further with more duplicate brands of liquor being sold in the market.

The chief minister supports the BJP's suggestion to review the tax holiday granted to the local liquor manufacturers, but does not give any firm assurance in this regard. However, he justifies his action to promote the local liquor industry, which would also generate employment.