Bengal government has earned a record revenue of more than Rs 750 crore in only 7 days through selling of liquor between
December 25 and 31.
The cumulative figure of revenue earned by the state in December was around Rs 2,100 crore. The sales went up by 40 per cent in this period compared to the figure registered in Bengal in normal days.
The sales figure in the last 7 days of December seemed to have surpassed the revenue that was generated in the state during Puja days in 2023.
Sources said that Kolkata, East Midnapore and Darjeeling registered the highest amount of sales. The amount that was collected as revenues during the Christmas week in 2023 outnumbered the corresponding figure recorded in 2022 as well, sources said.
Incidentally, the state had earned a revenue of around Rs 600 crore during Puja last year. Every year, the festive season is one period when the state looks up to bag robust excise revenues from liquor sales. The last year seemed to have taken the sales figure a notch higher than 2022 with total revenue of the year 2023 through liquor sales surpassing Rs 17,500 crore, sources said. The figure will further go up till the end of the current fiscal.
It was learnt that liquor stock in the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) category witnessed the maximum sale in the recent time 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.
Meanwhile, the revenues of the state government from liquor sale in 2023’s Durga Puja surpassed the sales figure of the previous year with IMFL topping the chart. Excise department figures indicate that sales reached their peak on Saptami and Navami last year. The earning on Saptami was 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 during Pujas.