| There is an imminent increase of Rs. 100 per bottle on imported wines in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra. The excise Commissioner of Maharashtra informed Pradeep Pachpatil, President of Nashik Valley Wine Producers Association, yesterday when he was on an official visit to Sula Wines, to discuss the future of wine industry in Maharashtra.
The special duty on bottle importers will go up from the current Rs.200 to Rs.300 per liter. This translates into Rs.75 increase per bottle. With additional VAT of Rs. 15 at 20% and the nominal additional profit the importer is going to charge, this implies an increase of Rs. 100 per bottle.
Maharashtra had only last year increased this special cess from Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 per liter.
 'This is in line with our request to protect the Maharashtra wine industry against the onslaught of imported wines,' added Pachpatil. 'We are also lobbying against the 0% import duty for the hotels since they are not passing it on to the consumers anyway. They are importing wines at low costs and selling them at exorbitant rates,' said he.
Another move to discourage bulk wine imports will result in increasing the special excise duty on bulk imports from Rs. 15 per bulk liter to Rs. 75. 'Wines produced from bulk import are also subject to 150% of cost price as special duty; this is not going to change' according to him.
The notification is expected in the next few days, as informed by Mr. Rao to Pradeep.
The Association is also fighting for the reduction of VAT from 20% to 4%, the rate that was promised the grape growers according to the Maharashtra Grape Policy 2001 and was actually allowed for about 6-months till it was revoked by the central government imposing a uniform VAT of 20%. Mr. J.N. Patil, the Minister of Finance, Maharashtra has promised the Association that this reduction will be announced soon. Apparently the Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Sharat Pawar is in favour of this reduction.
Subhash Arora |
