Over Rs 5,000 crore was collected from taxes on liquor in the current financial year and just Rs 210 crore from milk and milk products, the Delhi government has told the Assembly

Responding to a question asked by BJP MLA Abhay Verma in the Delhi Assembly, the government said it earned revenue of Rs 5,068.92 crore from excise duty and VAT (value added tax) on the sale of liquor in the financial year 2024-25. Rs 209.9 crore, it said, was earned in GST from milk and milk products. Both figures are till February.

The question comes at a time when the BJP has continued to attack the AAP over the alleged liquor policy scam. Former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia were among the AAP leaders who were jailed in connection with the alleged scam and the issue is seen as having played a big role in the party losing the Delhi Assembly elections last month.

The new Rekha Gupta-led BJP government reported that Rs 5,164 crore was collected in taxes on alcohol in 2023-24, Rs 5,547 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 5,487 crore in 2021-22. The government stated that due to the implementation of the new liquor policy in Delhi under the AAP from November 2021 to August 2022, only private shops were allowed to sell alcohol. However, when the old liquor policy was reimplemented in September 2022, government liquor stores were permitted to operate.

The AAP had said that the new liquor policy was aimed at cracking down on black marketing, increasing government revenue and improving the experience for customers. The Delhi Chief Secretary had flagged alleged violations in the policy the next year.

6 Lakh Litres A Day

In 2023-24, 21.27 crore litres of alcohol were sold in Delhi, which translates to 5.82 lakh litres per day. while the figure for 2022-23 was 25.84 crore litres. Compared to Rs 210 crore in 2024-25, the government earned about Rs 300 crore from the sale of milk in 2023-24 and Rs 365 crore in 2022-23.