Beer Will Get Costlier In Karnataka

In the Karnataka State budget presentation on Friday, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy proposed a hike in excise duty on draught beer and beer produced in microbreweries after a number of measures introduced for farmers and mutts in the state.

In the 2019-10 budget, Kumaraswamy set aside a total of Rs 110 crore for schemes related to the 38 mutts in the state and Rs 400 crore for minority communities.

Meanwhile, to increase sources of income, he hiked the excise duty on draught beer and beer produced at microbreweries. The additional excise duty on beer will be increased to 175 percent from 150 percent, while on draught beer it will be 150 percent from 115 percent.

As for the beer manufactured in microbreweries, the excise has been doubled to Rs 10 per bottle from Rs 5 and additional excise to Rs 25 from Rs 12.5 per bottle.

This is chief minister Kumaraswamy's second budget presentation in the current coalition government in the state of Karnataka. He holds a finance portfolio. The total size of the budget was Rs 2.34 lakh crore, where he proposed an allocation of Rs 12,650 crore budget for the Congress-JDS coalition government's flagship crop loan waiver scheme.