UP earns Rs.137 crore from sanitiser production

Uttar Pradesh registered a record production of sanitiser during the COVID-induced lockdown and after and generated record revenue in the process, officials said.

According to statistics released by the excise department, the distilleries and small units of UP produced a record 177 lakh litre of sanitiser from March 24 to November 15 and generated a record revenue of Rs.137 crore.

This includes GST revenue of Rs.12,848 lakh and the licence fee added Rs.794.28 lakh. In addition, the revenue from the denaturation fees was Rs.21.18 lakh. While more than 78.38 lakh litre of sanitiser was sold outside UP, 87.01 lakh litre was consumed within the state.

Officials said from just producing very little to exporting sanitiser to other states, UP quickly revisited its entire policy pertaining to sanitiser manufacture and sale.

Soon after the lockdown started, the State’s food safety and drug administration department had relaxed norms for manufacture and availability of sanitiser, allowing general stores to sell them too.

Earlier only medical centres with drug licences were authorised to sell sanitiser. Not just that, the excise department officials also ensured that the pricing of sanitiser was kept in check.

The excise department had urged people to ask for receipts while buying sanitiser so that cases of overpricing could be verified and the guilty punished.