Liquor shops will remain closed during the weekend curfew in the wake of fresh Covid-19 curbs imposed by the government, Karnataka Excise Minister K Gopalaiah said Wednesday.
The weekend curfew will kick in from 10 pm this Friday until 5 am on Monday. Another weekend curfew will be in force from the night of January 14 till early morning January 17.
Speaking to DH, Gopalaiah said no liquor will be available during the weekend when the curfew is in place. "We will have to close all the shops in line with the government's weekend curfew guidelines," he said. This means that there won't be any takeaway facility available, too. This will continue for as long as the government's weekend curfew is in place, according to the minister, who added that an official order in this regard will be issued on Thursday.
During the weekend curfew that was imposed last year, the government had allowed standalone liquor outlets to remain open from 6 am to 2 pm.
The closure of liquor shops may impact excise revenue for the government, which has a target of mopping up Rs 24,580 crore by the end of the current fiscal. In the last week of December, the run-up to the new year, beer and Indian Made Liquor (IML) saw sales worth Rs 977 crore - up from Rs 844 crore in December 2020 and Rs 878 crore in December 2019.
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