the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa’s bar and restaurant owners perceive a sharp decline in business owing to soaring prices of alcohol following the State government’s budget proposal to effect an up to 30% increase in excise duties and met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday to impress upon him to abandon the move.
A group of bar and restaurant owners presented a memorandum to Sawant in which they suggested that the State government should crack the whip on unlicensed outlets illegally selling liquor evading excise duties entirely. It would more or less offset the increase in revenues to the State exchequer which the government hopes to net with the move to hike excise duty, they said.
Former Mapusa civic chief Michael Carrasco, who owns
a bar and restaurant in the Northern city said, instead of increasing revenues the move to hike excise duty will in fact come down as overall sales would drop.
“In our Goan culture, bar and restaurants are known for cheap food and affordable liquor. This culture and tradition will eventually die off. Goa is also known all over India and the world for affordable food and liquor, with these hikes there will be no difference of prices all over India, for example (liquor in) Delhi would be cheaper than Goa,” Carrasco said in the memorandum to the Chief Minister.
Sawant had proposed to increase excise duty in various slabs on all kind of liquor distilled and sold in Goa. The hike proposed in the budget also worked out to nearly 30 per-cent for bars and restaurants.
