Kolkata registers record liquor sales during New Year’s eve, Rs 12 crore collection on Dec 31 – India Today

Kolkata witnessed a record sale of liquor on the last day of 2022. The city sold liquor worth Rs 12 crore on December 31.

Kolkata,UPDATED: Jan 2, 2023 19:53 IST

The sale rose dramatically in the last week of the year. (Representative Image)

By Rajesh Saha, Anirban Sinha Roy: Kolkata in West Bengal has set a new record for liquor sales on December 31. According to the source from the excise department, liquor worth around Rs 12 crore was sold on the last day of 2022 – 30 per cent more than the previous year.

Sources claimed that apart from Kolkata, there was a sale of liquor worth Rs 4 crore in North Kolkata and Rs 5 crore in South Kolkata on the day before the New Year.

The sales rose dramatically in the last week of the year, as the sources claimed nearly Rs 46 crore worth of liquor was sold in the state from December 25 to December 31.

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The liquor vendors believe that improvement in the Covid situation led liquor sales to shoot up in the last week of December.

“Sales this year have been more than the previous year. Maybe it’s because of an improvement in the Covid situation. Also, the government didn’t announce any lockdown this year, so people enjoyed the party without restrictions”, said Koushik Das, owner of a liquor shop in North Kolkata.

Some shop owners in the city claimed that the reduction in liquor prices also encouraged sales in 2022.

“I also think the reduction in liquor price has increased the sale this festive season as the price of liquor was higher in the previous year. It seems the government’s decision now reflects in sales statistics,” said a liquor vendor in Central Kolkata.

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