Bengaluru, April 20 -- Karnataka is moving from a bottle-based liquor tax system to an alcohol-strength-based taxation model, a shift that could directly reshape how every drink-from beer to whisky-is priced across the state.
The state government has released a draft notification proposing an alcohol-by-volume (ABV)-linked excise duty structure under amendments to the Karnataka Excise Rules, 1968. If implemented, the reform would replace the existing slab-based system with a framework that taxes alcoholic beverages based on their actual alcohol content rather than packaging category or fixed price bands.
At the heart of the proposal is a new concept termed "Alcohol-in-Beverage (AIB)", which calculates tax based on pure alcohol per litre....