New Delhi: Residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar will consume liquor worth Rs 1,652 crore in the financial year 2022-23, the highest revenue in a financial year since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, according to the Excise Department. officials said here. During the year, the excise department in Gautam Buddha Nagar, which includes Noida and Greater Noida, also cracked down on bootlegging, seizing over 50,000 liters of bootleg and arresting 360 people. According to excise data, the target for 2022-23 was Rs 1,828 crore, with revenue of Rs 1,652 crore (90.37%) earned between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. In 2021-22, the revenue was Rs 1,346 crore. And in 2020-21 it was Rs 1,019 crore.
“During 2022-23, a total of 966 cases related to violation of excise laws, such as smuggling of liquor, overrating by vendors, etc., were registered and 360 offenders were arrested. Additionally, 51,434 liters of illicit liquor was seized by the department Seized and District Excise Officer Rakesh Bahadur Singh told PTI-Bhasha that 106 vehicles including two-wheelers were seized.
Gautam Buddh Nagar, which shares its borders with Delhi and Haryana, has 535 licensed liquor shops in Noida and Greater Noida, Singh said.
Liquor sales were hit in the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid outbreak, but eventually picked up, leading to record revenue in the last fiscal, the official said.
“We have been able to achieve more than 90 per cent of our target of Rs 1,828 crore in revenue. We could have achieved the target, but due to some policy issues in neighboring Delhi, we fell short,” Singh said.
Earlier in March, liquor worth around Rs 14 crore was sold in Noida and Greater Noida two days before Holi, following a dip in sales since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He told that last year, before Holi, an income of about Rs 11.5 crore was generated from the sale of liquor, while on December 30 and 31, about nine crore rupees were sold.