Maha govt to shut down liquor shops on national, state

Maharashtra government will implement the Supreme Court's verdict of December 15 that directed all the states to shut down all liquor shops and vends on national and state highways.

State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar cited the rising number of deaths in road accidents in the state while stating that the liquor shops on state and national highways will be closed.

"Maximum number of deaths due to road accidents were due to drunken driving. The SC verdict effectively means that 12,967 liquor shops in the state that fall within the 500 meter radius will have to shut down after March 31, 2017," he told reporters here.

Asked about the contention of the liquor lobby about revenue loss, Mungantiwar said, "anyway they are not in the business of selling holy water." The minister also said that the Maharashtra government was prepared to incur the loss in its revenue and will implement the order of the apex court.

"Out of the total 16,856 deaths in 2015-16, 13,212 deaths were road accident deaths and again out of that maximum of them were due to drunken driving," Mungantiwar claimed.

Meanwhile, officials said due to demonetisation, the department anticipates a 4.88 percent decline in revenue between December 1 to 20.

As per State Excise departments data, the department had fixed the revenue income out of liquor for 2016 at Rs 15,343.96 crore.

The department had posted a revenue income of Rs 1,024.57 crore in November 2015, whereas the revenue income in November this year was Rs 1,027.35 crore, a rise of 0.27 percent, shows the data.