Mumbai: Wine will soon be available in supermarkets, walk in shops in Maharashtra as the state cabinet at its meeting slated in Thursday will give its approval. This will allow winemakers to broaden their retail footprint.
The government will charge per bulk litre nominal excise duty of Rs 10 on all types of wine bottles. This will earn only Rs 5 crore revenue for the state but will help the excise administration know the amount of wine bottles sold in the market.
Majority of wines have very low content of pure spirits as compared to other liquors. Also, a large number of restaurants and bakeries use wine for food making.
The existing wine policy, which allows sale of wine only through exclusive liquor stores, has been in force for the last 20 years. The policy has been lapsed and therefore the government has brought in a revised policy.
Maharashtra has around 45 operational wineries. Of these, between 15 and 20 units directly market products, while the rest are only manufacturers.
The wine industry has a turnover of around Rs 1,000 crore in India, of which 65% units are in Maharashtra. Most wineries are located in Nashik, which produces around 80% of India’s wine, followed by Sangli, Pune, Solapur, Buldhana and Ahmednagar.
The current sale of 70 lakh litres per year in the state is expected to go up to 1 crore litres under the new liberalised policy for retail sale.
