The Assam government has hiked the excise duty to compensate VAT reduction on petrol and diesel. With the hike in excise duty, the liquor price will increase by 15 percent with effect from December 10.

However, no additional taxes have been levied on beer and wine.

The tax will be higher for costly liquor in Assam.

In fiscal 2001-02, the State government earned Rs 148-crore excise revenue against Rs 2,033 crore in 2020-21. In this fiscal, the department has set a target of Rs 2,400-crore excise revenue collection.

Official sources say that the State Government did not issue licences for liquor and wine shops after 2001. It, however, issued licences for bars during that period. Now the State Government has decided to issue licences for wine shops at a few locations. The state has 1,234 liquor and wine shops, 318 in Guwahati alone. The number of bars in the state is 996.

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