Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 30: At a time when the state is grappling with extremely hot temperature and dust kicked up by the forthcoming election, liquor prices have been suddenly jacked up from Sunday April 1 onward. The prices have shot up by eight percent, a development that has come as a shock to people who love to consume liquor on a regular basis.

The price hike is necessitated as per the increase in rate of duty announced in the state budget this year. The excise department is making preparations for the release of the list of revised rates. Probably the list might be out on Saturday or Monday in view of intervening holidays. As announced earlier, eight percent excise duty will be increased for the slabs from 2 to 18. Along with basic duty new additional duty will be added to all the types of liquor like Indian Made Foreign Liquor, Beer, Indian Made Liquor etc.

Additional commissioner in excise department, S L Rajendra Prasad, clarified that the increase in prices being brought into fore from April 1 does not get affected because of model code of conduct. Karnataka State Liquor Merchants Association chief secretary, Govindraj Hegde, said that till the new prices are printed on the bottles, liquor would be sold by adding duty to the currently printed prices.