Interestingly, the highest percentage terms rise in consumption comes from tier-III and rural Maharashtra.
Indicating the changing economic and social trends in Maharashtra, sales of wine witnessed the highest rise by December end, followed by Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer. The drought in large swathes of the state, including Marathwada seems to have led to a fall in consumption of the liquor of the masses — country liquor (CL).
Interestingly, the highest percentage terms rise in consumption comes from tier-III and rural Maharashtra. For instance, despite low volumes, tribal-dominated Nandurbar has the highest rise in wine consumption (69.58%), while Bhandara in Vidarbha's paddy belt has seen rise in sales of beer and CL by 14.33% and 27.61%, respectively — the highest in the state. Yavatmal accounted for a massive 43.56% increase in IMFL sales, according to the state excise department's figures.
Country liquor, which is cheaper and is consumed by the masses, sees highest sales in terms of volumes. Figures for the period ended December 2015, show a 4.41% fall in CL sales compared to the same period the previous year to end at 2,363.33 lakh bulk liters (BL) as against 2,472.33 lakh BL.
While growth in beer consumption was tepid (4.12%) with people guzzling 2,523.18 lakh BL versus 2,423.36 lakh BL, IMFL showed a comparatively healthy rise at 7.43% (1,376.78 lakh BL against 1,281.56 lakh BL). Wine sales showed the highest percentage terms growth from 42.71 lakh BL against 38.59 lakh BL (10.66%).
"Country liquor sales have fallen. It is possible that the increase in rates (due to a duty hike) has affected sales. But, this does not seem like the only reason, drought too may be a factor," state excise commissioner Vijay Singhal told dna.
"Generally, people have begun preferring IMFL to beer as it is cheaper and can give a faster kick with lesser money," said a senior excise official, adding that growth in wine consumption indicated the rising preference of women and the upwardly mobile.
"The fall in CL consumption is because of the prevailing agrarian distress and drought in Marathwada and parts of Vidarbha, which have led to lower disposable incomes," the official explained, adding that CL sales had declined by 5.32% and 11.15% in the Marathwada and Nagpur divisions.
Liquor consumption figures for Mumbai city show that beer sales have shown the highest growth (5.39%)—166.33 lakh BL vs 157.83 lakh BL, compared to other classes of liquor namely, IMFL (3.68%), wine (2.84%) and country liquor (a fall of 3.29%). Island city residents drank 89.21 lakh BL of IMFL compared to a lower 86.04 lakh BL in the previous year, while sales of wine were at 4.74 lakh BL compared to 4.61 lakh BL.
The story is slightly different in the suburbs where percentage growth (11.13%) in volumes of wine, which rose to 11.13 lakh BL from 10.01 lakh BL, is more than beer (8.18%), IMFL (6.37%) and country liquor (a fall of 0.37%). The suburbs saw 189.15 lakh BL of IMFL and 429.54 lakh BL beer being consumed as against last year's figures of 177.82 lakh BL and 397.06 lakh BL respectively.
Fast urbanizing Thane, which has seen an exponential growth in residential, industrial and commercial activity, too shows an interesting trend with wine sales showing the highest growth in percentage terms at 12.08%, followed by IMFL at 9.92%, beer at 8.83% and CL 7.33%.
Raigad, which is witnessing a boom in the real-estate market, with the well-heeled purchasing second homes and weekend bungalows on the coastline, has seen wine sales rise by 20.56%, followed by beer (8.02%) and IMFL (7.82%). CL sales have however shown de-growth of 0.44%.
Ironically, Nashik, which is seen as the country's wine capital has seen a muted rise in sales of the beverage at just 2.92%, with IMFL consumption showing the highest increase at 10.32%. Maharashtra's beer capital of Aurangabad, which falls in drought-hit Marathwada, but houses the largest number of breweries in Maharashtra, saw beer growth fall by a marginal 2.62%.
The department has a Rs 13,500 crore target for the current fiscal and has managed to collect 62.85% (Rs 8,484.31 crore) by December-end. In the last financial year, the state excise had missed its revenue target by Rs 100 crore, managing to garner around Rs 11,400 crore, just short of the Rs 11,500 crore target.
From April 2015, the state has imposed prohibition in Chandrapur, which had contributed Rs 92.37 crore to the excise department's coffers as revenues in 2014-15. Wardha and Gadchiroli are already dry.
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