Beer to be dear in Andhra Pradesh?

HYDERABAD: After feeling the pinch in December last year with the government hiking excise duty on Indian made foreign liquor ( IMFL), the tipplers now have to brace up for the dearness of beer with the manufacturers seeking price increase on the beverage.
Sources privy to the development said the beer manufacturers had the beer manufacturers had sought Rs 37 hike per case for lager beer from Rs 210 and Rs49 per case for strong beer from Rs 235.A case consists of 12 bottles of 650 ml beer.
If the distillers have their way, the consumers would end up paying at Rs 3 more bottle of lager beer, and Rs 4 more on strong beer.
While the excise officials said hike in beer prices was likely, even the manufacturers of cheap and medium liquor are also mulling to move the government with a request of increase the price of their products.
“The liquor prices haven’t been increased since three yea. While excise duty had been hiked in last December, the basic prices were unaltered. Now, I think the government must meet our demand as earning revenue for the exchequer is as important as viability of our business,” said a distiller.
However, there is a technical hitch. As the rules mandate that the basic price of liquor to be uniform across the country, it cannot changed in the state. And the state government is understood to have been exploring a mid-path to meet the demands of the liquor manufacture. According to the sources, a related announcement is expected after the panchayat polls scheduled to over on July 31.
To get around legal hurdles to hike basic price of liquor, the government last December increased excise duty and trade margin on Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL). As a consequence, tippler is paying at least Rs 10 more for a bottle of 180 ml of medium or premium liquor.
Originally planned to hike the basic price which would have benefited manufactures, the government held back a memo to that effect owing to a pending court case, and issued a government order (GO No. 666) increasing excise duty and trade margin on the sale of the liquor. And the duty hike would fetch additional revenue of Rs 500 crore to the government exchequer.