by Subhash Arora
A day after the Indian state of Maharashtra hiked the excise duty on wine from 150% to 200% last week, the adjoining state of Goa announced an increase in the label registration charges from an annual Rs.12000
(€210) to Rs.25000 per label. The earlier renewal charges of Rs.3000 have escalated four-fold to Rs. 12000 a year.
Says Ranjit Gupta, a new importer who is jittery about this change, feels threatened as he will be severely hit by the increase. "We felt the registration charges were already too steep, but since the renewals were reasonable, we had decided to take the plunge. Now, with this hike and renewal increasing four times, it may not be possible for us to even recover the label charges in Goa." Like most other small importers Gupta will be forced to cut down on the labels he registers, making it impossible to add new wines to his portfolio.
Recently Goa excise department had also started insisting on the manufacturing license before registering the new labels. Importers find it very difficult to procure the same from their principals. Bouvet Ladubay is reportedly the only company that has been able to provide the same. The French winery is fully owned by UB which is importing it in India and the wine is being launched there.
The Goa market has been moving on a fast track due to the heavy tourist traffic that it attracts.
