Jammu, Feb 19: Liquor sales in Jammu and Kashmir remained strong during the current financial year even as overall volumes showed a marginal decline compared to last year, with the Union Territory continuing to depend significantly on excise revenues from the sector.
Official data shows that the government itself does not produce liquor. Production is entirely undertaken by authorised distilleries, bottling plants and breweries operating under licence. In 2023–24, these units produced 40,83,576 cases of liquor, generating total revenue of Rs 541.64 crores.
In 2024–25, production marginally declined to 40,52,215 cases, with revenue remaining almost stable at Rs 541.30 crores.
During 2025–26, up to January 2026, production stood at 31,27,561 cases, yielding Rs 435.22 crores in revenue.
Excise duty collections from locally produced liquor were Rs 473.21 crores in 2023–24 and Rs 468.97 crores in 2024–25. In the current financial year up to January, excise duty collections have reached Rs 378.18 crores.
Sales data indicates that during 2025–26 up to January, total liquor sales (Civil and CSD/PMF combined) stood at 5,63,11,236 bottles, or 563.11 lakh bottles, compared to 5,89,43,000 bottles, or 589.43 lakh bottles, in 2024–25 for the comparable period, reflecting a decline of 4.47 per cent.
In the Civil category, total sales declined by 5.69 per cent in 2025–26 up to January. IMFL sales recorded a marginal dip of 0.31 per cent, while JK Special Whisky sales declined by 6.99 per cent and beer sales by 7.82 per cent.
Ready-to-Drink beverages, however, registered an increase of 14.01 per cent. In the CSD/PMF segment, overall sales increased by 3.17 per cent, with IMFL sales rising by 4.56 per cent and RTD sales registering a significant jump, though beer sales declined by nearly 6 per cent.
Of the total sales during 2025–26 up to January, 411 lakh bottles were from local production, while 151 lakh bottles comprised imported liquor from outside the Union Territory.
Revenue realised from imported liquor during this period included Rs 85 crores in excise duty and Rs 30 crores in import duty. The number of liquor vends has increased steadily under the revised excise policy.
From 223 vends in 2020–21, the number rose to 305 in 2023–24 and has remained at that level through 2025–26. Revenue from auctioning of vends and licence fees has also risen sharply over the years.
While licence fee collections stood at Rs 6.69 crores in 2020–21, bid amounts increased to Rs 123 crores in 2021–22, Rs 217 crores in 2022–23, Rs 270 crores in 2023–24, Rs 286 crores in 2024–25 and Rs 280 crores in 2025–26.
Overall liquor sales in Jammu and Kashmir have remained significantly higher than pandemic-period levels. Total sales stood at 471.50 lakh bottles in 2020–21, rising to 564.70 lakh bottles in 2021–22, 659.12 lakh bottles in 2022–23, 672.48 lakh bottles in 2023–24 and 693.89 lakh bottles in 2024–25.
Though the current year has recorded a slight moderation so far, the excise sector continues to remain one of the major contributors to the Union Territory’s non-tax revenue.
With production decentralised and revenue streams diversified across excise duty, import duty and vend auctions, the liquor sector continues to provide a stable source of income to the government even amid shifting consumption patterns and moderate fluctuations in category-wise sales.
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