The slump continuing to grip the mining sector has taken a heavy toll on the earning of excise revenue in the State.
A recent study by the Department of Excise (DoE) reveals that the Year-on-Year (Y-O-Y) growth in the mining zones is sharply plummeting. The major mining activities in Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Jajpur districts, have come to a grinding halt in the wake of the mining scam and economic slowdown, leading to a crash in the liquor market.
The meltdown in the mining sector has adversely affected the amount of liquor consumption, both quantitatively and qualitatively. In 2010-11, the excise trade in these mining zones had touched a 30-per cent growth, but it came down to 17 per cent in 2011-12 while the year 2012-13 recorded a paltry 1 per cent growth, revealed a senior officer in the DoE.
The official said the quantum of liquors, whisky, rum and beer, sold in the areas along the National Highway-215 running between Keonjhar and Paradip has registered a negative growth, resulting in low excise revenue. The collection of excise revenue for 2012-13 dropped to Rs 1,499 crore against the target of Rs 1,700 crore.
Against this backdrop, the DoE is planning e-auction of liquor shops so as to augment revenue. The State has less than four liquor shops per one lakh population compared to the national average of 12 shops.
Neighbouring Bihar has 5.5 retail outlets per lakh population while Andhra Pradesh has nine.
The excise revenue in Bihar crossed Rs 5,600 crore and Andhra Pradesh recorded Rs 9,014 crore during 2011-12. The neighbouring Chhattishgarh, which has similarity with Odisha in terms of area, population, demography, geography and per capita income, is also doing well in the excise sector.
Chhattishgarh, which collected Rs 1,900 crore as excise revenue in 2010-11 and Rs 3,000 crore in 2011-12, is eyeing a bigger chunk of revenue from liquor business, thanks to more numbers of retail liquor outlets and a hyperactive mining sector.
Sales of liquor through more retail outlets and settling the shops on e-auction mode are expected to help Odisha collect more excise revenue, feel officials.