THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala State Beverages Corporation has clarified that the price of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) had increased only by an average rate of seven per cent on account of the recent revision in excise duty.

In a press release on Monday, the corporation said that press reports maintaining that the price of IMFL had gone up exorbitantly following the duty revision from April 1 were incorrect.

The rate of excise duty earlier was a fixed amount for IMFL varieties coming under six different purchase price slabs. In each slab, the duty for the variety at the lowest end of the slab and that for the one at the highest end were the same. This prompted most of the suppliers to fix their prices at the highest end of each slab, the press release said.

The Government rationalised the duty structure from April 1 to ensure that excise duty would increase or decrease in proportion to the actual purchase price of each IMFL variety. The excise duty within each purchase price slab was revised as a percentage of the purchase price. This would bring in higher revenue to the State exchequer.Giving a detailed analysis of the price variation of 50 top brands of IMFL after the duty revision, the corporation said that the average price increase was only seven per cent for the 750 ml and 375 ml (`full' and `half') bottles and just 2.06 per cent for the 180 ml (`quarter') bottles.

In the case of several fast moving brands, the price had gone down by 8 per cent to 10 per cent. The maximum decrease was 13.33 per cent for a product that enjoyed 1.9 per cent of the market share.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail