The Assam and Meghalaya governments on Friday increased the excise duty on liquor by 25%.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma defended the hike and said it is expected to fetch the cash-strapped government an additional revenue of Rs. 130 crore annually.
Assam, on the other hand, hopes to generate additional revenue of Rs. 1,000 crore for the State exchequer. The hike on liquor came a fortnight after fuel prices were raised by almost Rs. 6 per litre.
The Assam Cabinet had, through video conferencing, expressed concern over an 80% drop in revenue collection due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The collection in April was ₹193 crore, almost five times less than the ₹932 crore collected in April 2019. Similarly, the tax realised from foreign liquor came down from ₹65 crore in March to ₹6 crore in April.
The Assam government had reopened liquor outlets for three days in April and from May 1. The wine shops witnessed unprecedented rush with daily sales ranging from ₹15-20 crore.
Labour reforms
The Assam Cabinet also followed Uttar Pradesh in approving labour reforms in a bid to increase the scope of employment.
The measures include the introduction of fixed-term employment and increasing the shift duty for workers during COVID-19 period from eight 12 hours.
The number of minimum employees for implementation of the Factories Act has been doubled from existing figures for various categories of factories while those with fewer employees have been exempted from registration.
The minimum number of workers for implementation of the Contract Labour Act has also been increased from 20 to 50.
