Although demonetisation has hit everyone hard since close to past two months, it has failed to contain the spirits of New Year revelers in Assam.
According to statistics available with the State Excise department, people in Assam’s capital town Guwahati alone bought 90,000 litres of alcohol on the last day of previous year, fetching the State exchequer a whooping revenue of `3.5 crore on a single day.
“The revenue generated on December 31, 2016 is 30 percent more than the revenue generated on December 31, 2015,” said Senior Excise department official Debajit Nath while speaking to The Pioneer on Wednesday.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP led Government in Assam, which assumed charge in May last year, had taken up several steps to stop the revenue leakage in excise department. Corrective steps had also been taken to increase the revenue of the department.
“Normally the December 31 had always been a dry day in Assam. However, this time December 31 was not a dry day. This added to the celebrations of the people and perhaps is also one of the reasons for the increased revenue on the day,” he said.
The Assam Government had recently reduced the number of dry days in the State from earlier 28 days to four days only and set a target of `1,800 revenue generation for the Excise department in the 2016-17 fiscal.
Assam’s capital town alone has close to 300 wine shops, 128 bars, 13 clubs, seven beer bars, four beer shops, 16 liquor bottling plants, 20 bonded warehouses and 10 country liquor plants.