Alcohol gets cheaper in Maharashtra as State cuts excise duty on imported scotch by 50%

Mumbai, Nov 22: The Maharashtra government has slashed excise duty on imported scotch whiskey by 50 per cent to bring its price on par with that in other states, a senior official said.

"The excise duty on imported scotch whiskey has been brought down from 300 per cent to 150 per cent of the manufacturing cost," the official told PTI.

Thus a price of 1000 ml imported bottle, mostly scotch whiskey starting from minimum Rs 5,800 to maximum Rs 14,000, will at least reduce by 35 to 40%.

The notification in this regard was issued on Thursday, she said.

The Maharashtra government earns revenue of about Rs 100 crore from the sale of imported scotch annually. The revenue is expected to increase to Rs 250 crore as the sale is expected to go up from one lakh bottles to 2.5 lakh bottles, the official said.

The reduction in duty would also curb smuggling of scotch from other states and sale of spurious liquor, she added.