|
State excise minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule reportedly said that the state government was working on this excise duty exemptions, ostensibly to help farmers who are forced to discard surplus fruit. The State had announced a 10-year excise friendly in 2001 for 10 years for wines made from grapes. This was subsequently extended for another 10 years till December, 2021, wherein wines made from grapes were exempted for paying excise duty when produced and sold within the State.
Though production units for wines made from fruits already exist, manufacturers claim that a high excise duty regime and the small wine market have led to subdued demand."This exemption will help promote value addition and ensure remunerative pricing for farmers," said an official, according to a report in DNA. A proposal will be moved before the state cabinet by the industries department, he noted.
A state excise official said they had already widened the scope of the Maharashtra Manufacture of Beer and Wine rules to cover wine made from fruits, flowers and mead (honey)."Wine made from grapes is duty exempted... Wines can be made from mango, jamun, cashew apple, but these products cannot penetrate the market due to high excise duty which pushes up prices and affects customers' demand," said former BJP MLA Dr Vinay Natu. Currently fruit-based wines are charged an excise duty of 100% of the manufacturing cost plus GST, he says. (Although the report quotes him as saying GST, in fact wine and all liquor are outside the purview of the GST regime and continue to attract VAT.)
The talk for excise exemption has been going on for some time. Earlier in May, 2017 Asian Age had reported a similar story in which the State excise department was reported to have plans to change its policy and allow winemakers to produce the alcoholic beverage from flowers, stems, leaves or any natural substances. The proposal was then at final stage of approval and would encourage wineries to experiment and produce wine from different substances.
The changes in the policy were made after a demand from the industry to allow wine from rose petals and honey. Interestingly, a women’s group had demanded permission to make wine from rose petals. ‘Instead of allowing only one substance, we have taken a broader view and plan to allow winemaking from natural substances. The policy will be approved soon,” Bavankule had then said. The proposal was apparently prepared in 2014 but did not make much progress then.
The talk of making fruit wines has been going on for several years. In fact, as far back as 2009, delWine had published an Article in which DNA was quoted as saying that Maharashtra had plans to promote fruit wines. Barring Rhythm Winery in Pune, no one has been able to make it a commercial success.
(Be however warned if you plan to open the site that it does not give any prices on the website and asks you to put in your date of birth every time you click on any button to get information. Fortunately, just pressing the Cancel button takes you to the right page. For prices and the shops where it is available in Maharashtra, click http://rhythmwinery.com/store-locations/)
Nirvana Biosys had tried making mango and leechie wines near Gurgaon in Rewari District in Haryana, by importing initially grape juice and fermenting at this factory and then added the two fruit wines. Despite their claims that the fruit wines were immensely successful, the commercial viability could not be proved and the factory was sold, and the production of wines and fruit wines discontinued.
In 2011, the then operational Indian Grape Processing Board (IGPB) had supported a fruit wine conference in Shillong where Subhash Arora was also one of the invitee speakers.
Later in 2013 IGPB also announce that it might take the fruit wine manufacturing under its wings
Excise duty is a substantial part of the costs for making fruit wines. The Himachal Pradesh fruit wine industry has done reasonably well within the State because of exemption of duty (a very small amount is levied) but has not expanded outside the State due to the high taxation. It is a well accepted fact that quality of the fruit wines still needs to be improved a lot and the prices have to be much lower than the grape wines to have a share in the market.
It is also important to realise that the winery would be successful only if the fruit is surplus and available at much cheaper prices. A combination of factors like low cost, no excise duty and improved quality will help the fruit wine segment to make greater inroads into the wine segment. This might even help wine getting recognition as a food and fruit-based product and help distinguish it from liquor, which is unfortunately not the case yet.
The excise duty exemption for fruit wines made from natural products is a step in the right direct and one hopes that that it will be granted sooner than later.
For another earlier related Article also visit,
Shillong hosts 12th Fruit Wine Festival
Subhash Arora |