According to officials from the excise department in Gautam Buddh Nagar, which includes Noida and Greater Noida, the residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar consumed liquor worth Rs 1,652 crore in the financial year 2022-23. This is the highest revenue generated in a financial year since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020. The excise department also cracked down on illegal liquor during the year, seizing more than 50,000 litres of illicit alcohol and arresting 360 people.
The target for revenue in 2022-23 was set at Rs 1,828 crore, against which a revenue of Rs 1,652 crore (90.37 per cent) was earned from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. The revenue earned in 2021-22 stood at Rs 1,346 crore and in 2020-21, at Rs 1,019 crore. During the year, a total of 966 cases related to violations of the excise law, such as liquor trafficking and overrating by vendors, were lodged and 360 offenders were arrested. Additionally, 51,434 litres of illicit liquor were seized by the department and 106 vehicles, including two-wheelers, were impounded.
Gautam Buddh Nagar has 535 licensed liquor shops across Noida and Greater Noida. The officer said that liquor sales were impacted due to the Covid outbreak in the first quarter of 2020 but picked up pace eventually, leading to a record revenue in the last fiscal. “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 neighbouring Delhi, we fell slightly short of it,” said District Excise Officer Rakesh Bahadur Singh.
