The excise department is waiting for the Winter Session of the state Assembly to get over by the first week of December to implement the hike in excise duty to garner additional revenue of Rs 1,500- Rs 2,000 crore, according to reliable sources. The Maharashtra model will be copied where the excise duty is 100 per cent of the basic price.

The department will also restructure the Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corp-oration Limited’s margin following a recent High Court directive to pay income-tax on the profits earned by the corporation, the lone wholesale trader of liquor in the state. The government would show the margin also in the form of tax and duty to avoid income-tax of about Rs 1,000 cr. Sources said that the present 85 per cent excise duty on the basic price of low category liquor (Rs 450 per case) will be increased to 100 per cent.

In the higher categories, the excise duty which is Rs 75 to Rs 91 per proof litre will be changed to equivalent of the basic price. The excise duty would be increased for categories with basic price up to Rs 1,300. While hike in excise duty will be eventually passed on to the consumers with expected hike in the retail price of liquor products, recent drive against the retail outlets for selling liquor above the MRP will be intensified after increased excise duty comes into effect.

“The retailers are selling at least Rs 20 above the MRP and with fresh increase in prices, the retailer will add the illegal margin to the new price,” a senior official said adding that the drive would help restricting the retailers to MRP.