MP excise revenue swells

The Madhya Pradesh government has said its excise revenue has swelled by Rs 200 crore to touch Rs 2,953 crore during the current financial year despite control sale of liquor in the state. “We do not favour prohibition as other states with a total prohibition has not seen encouraging results. However, our revenue has gone up handsomely this year. Of the total Rs 18,000 crore tax collection revenue, the state has mopped up almost Rs 3,000 crore from excise,” MP Finance Minister Raghav Ji said. On prohibition, he said, “Those states that have imposed prohibition have recorded a huge number of deaths due to illegal liquor consumption.” The state has also put sale of wine out of ambit of th excise Act but holds control on it through depots.