SHILLONG: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on coal mining in Meghalaya has affected the revenue collection of the Excise department.
Indicating this, Excise minister Zenith Sangma said that the department last year had generated Rs 155 crore but in the current year the collection has gone down drastically.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma recently said that the sale of liquor has gone down as an offshoot of the NGT ban on coal mining in the state.
To improve the situation, the Meghalaya Cabinet earlier this month approved a proposal to revise the Excise slab on Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
According to the Excise Minister, with the new revised excise slab, the department is hoping to generate an additional amount of Rs 20 crore as the revenue.
The State Government would immediately get additional revenue to the tunes of Rs.15 crore from Excise duty and Rs.4.50 crore from VAT on liquor per annum, he added.
It may be mentioned that that the cost price of the general brand has been increased from Rs.386 and Rs.734 per case to Rs.536 and Rs.884 per case, respectively. The cost price of the deluxe brand has been increase from Rs.736 an Rs.1235 per case to Rs.885 and Rs.1385, respectively.
Meanwhile, reacting to a query, the minister also made it clear that so far the department has not taken any concrete step to legalise traditional wine making.
