PANJIM: The revenue collection from liquor is going strong as the Excise Department is not far from reaching its target of Rs 409 crore this financial year. In fact, the department is expected to touch around Rs 450 crore by March 31, 2019, when the 2018-19 fiscal year ends.
“The revenue collection till February 2019 is Rs 407.78 crore. We will cross Rs 450 crore, more than the year’s target of Rs 409 crores,” Assistant Commissioner of Excise Satyawan Bhivshet told Herald. The total amount also includes Rs 6 lakh paid by the organisers of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Sunburn Klassique, which was held during the last weekend of February.
The current financial year’s target has already crossed the 2017-18’s revenue collection of Rs 350 crore. “The collection is up by Rs 56 crore so far,” the officer said. The department is yet to release official figures of its projection for the coming financial year.
Despite a hiatus of over 3 years when Sunburn shifted to Pune owing to differences with the government and Supersonic EDM too quit Goa, the excise department claims their revenue collection did not suffer any set back. As per the official figures, 2014-15 saw an earning of Rs 268.04 crores while the revenue touched Rs 315.30 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 320.90 crore in 2016-17 fiscal year.
