Ranchi, May 15: Price cannot be a deterrent if it?s your daily bread or peg.

Ask the armymen. Liquor prices have begun burning holes in the pockets of the military personnel, used to getting alcohol at subsidised rates, following the implementation of value-added tax (VAT) at the defence canteens. But increase in the liquor prices (up to 25 per cent) has had little impact on the consumption of alcohol, after VAT was levied from April 1 on the products sold at the outlets run by the Canteen Stores Department.

Sales have remained unaffected primarily because even after an increase in price, the stuff still sells at half the rates as on the general market.

After VAT was imposed in the army canteens, a bottle of Old Monk rum, which was available for Rs 53 prior to April 1, is now selling for Rs 73. The price of a bottle of BlackBull has gone up from Rs 49 to Rs 71.

A bottle of Officers Royal Challenge was being sold for Rs 173 till March 31, but now it is available for Rs 243, while the price of a bottle of 100 Pipers has shot up from Rs 467 to Rs 630.

A lieutenant-colonel who regularly buys a few bottles of 100 Pipers whisky every month said the price increase is ?really pinching?.

?I always used to gift the bottles to my civilian friends. But now, it is an expensive proposition,? he said.

An ex-armyman, who utilises his monthly quota of four bottles from the canteen to oblige the principal of the school where his children study, said: ?Every month, the principal gives me a fixed amount for the bottles. But after the price increase, the amount he pays is insufficient and last month I had to ask him for some extra amount. I am sure he did not like that.?

Commercial taxes secretary Alka Tiwari said canteens were exempt from sales tax on liquor under the Bihar Sales Tax Act, but now 25 per cent tax was being charged from them because there is no provision to exempt army canteens from the ambit of VAT.

?The issue was discussed by the Union government?s empowered committee to relax VAT on the liquor sold in army canteens, but it decided that there will be no exemption. Instead, the ministry of defence could be requested to provide subsidies to its canteens. But when the ministry did not respond to the request, the committee left it to the states to exempt army canteens from the purview of VAT. But in that case the burden of the exemption will have to be borne by the state government,? she said.

Since many states such as Delhi and Haryana have already exempted the army canteens from VAT, the Jharkhand government is also considering to exempt the canteens here from tax, Tiwari said, adding that a proposal in this connection has been forwarded to the government.

?If the proposal is accepted, liquor prices will come down in the army canteens again,? Tiwari said.