Karnataka government planning to change legal age for drinking

The Karnataka government has proposed lowering the minimum age for purchasing and consuming alcohol in the state from 21 to 18 years. Karnataka government planning to change legal age for drinking. In this regard, it issued a draft notification titled ‘Karnataka Excise (General Conditions of Licenses) (Amendment) Rules-2023’ last week and requested public feedback within 30 days.

Reports say the liquor industry has long sought a reduction in the legal drinking age. The state’s finance department published a draft of the aforementioned change on 9 January and has now invited objections from the public within 30 days. A committee set up under retired bureaucrat V Yashwanth has made this proposal.

Notably, Karnataka’s excise rule is a bit ambiguous. As per the Karnataka Excise Act 1965, the minimum drinking age in Karnataka is 18 years old, while the rules by the Karnataka Excise Licenses (General Conditions) Rules 1967 say the legal age is 21 years old.

Therefore, the current proposal is aiming to replace the current age requirement of 21 years with 18 years by amending rule 10. The committee has backed the amendment saying that, “If a person can vote at 18, why aren’t they allowed to consume alcohol?”

The Karnataka government has fixed a target of Rs.29,000 crore as the excise revenue target for FY2023. However, during Christmas and New Year, excise revenue dipped by 10.63%, even as liquor sales have seen an increase of 14.86% in comparison to 2021.

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On New Year’s eve, a total of 1.5 million cartons of beer had been sold against 1.1 million cartons last year–a total of 1.5 million cartons of beer had been sold against 1.1 million cartons last year. In the case of Indian-Made Liquor, 2.6 million cartons were sold against a total of 1.9 million cartons last year, reporting a 6.17 % increase.