Guwahati News Desk: The Assam government is all set to increase the cost of liquor by at least 15 percent, the increase of excise duty is to compensate VAT reduction on petrol and diesel.
Along with the increase in excise duty, this increase in the price of liquor is scheduled to bring into effect by Friday 10 December. This particular decision has been taken by the state’s government in the view to compensate VAT (value-added tax) price on diesel and petrol.
Meantime the government informed that no other additional taxes have been imposed on the price of wine and beer. The higher tax will be applied for all those liquor in Assam that is costly to buy. In the revenue years 2001-02, the government of Assam gained an excise revenue of Rupees 148 crores against Rupees 2,033 crore in the fiscal years 2020-21. In this fiscal, the department has chosen a target of excise revenue collection as Rs 2,400-crore.
According to the claim by official sources, after the year 2001, the Government of Assam did not issue licenses for the shops of wine and liquor though the government had allowed for issuing licenses for bars across the state during a similar period after 2001.
Currently, the Assam Government has taken the decision to provide licenses to some of the shops selling wine at fewer selective locations in the state.
The total number of bars in Assam is counted as 996, Assam has a total of 1,234 shops for selling wine and liquor among which 318 are located the Guwahati city alone.
