Bengaluru, 7 March

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the State would adopt a globally recognised taxation system that links excise duty to the alcohol content of beverages. Announcing the overhaul of the 60-year-old Karnataka Excise Act, he said that Karnataka would completely deregulate alcohol pricing.

He introduced the Alcohol-in-Beverage (AIB) excise duty structure, which will come into effect from April.

The system of levying excise duty based on alcohol content per litre will be introduced in stages in three to four years to avoid disruption in the market.

"Product placement within slabs will be left to the producers based on market considerations," he said. He also set an ambitious revenue target of Rs 45,000 crore from the excise sector for 2026–27.

The CM further said tourism in the alcohol sector will be encouraged by allowing distilleries and breweries to conduct tasting sessions and sell products.

"To simplify the structure further, the number of pricing slabs for alcoholic beverages will be reduced significantly. Pricing slabs will be rationalised and reduced to eight slabs from the existing 16 slabs," he said.

Manufacturing licences will be auto-renewed, and label approvals, CL-5 (occasional licences) and RVB licences will be auto-generated upon online self-declaration and payment of fees, with deemed approval and no manual intervention, he added.