Shillong, Sept 16: The Meghalaya government expects to earn an additional Rs 150 crore in revenue following reforms in the state’s excise structure, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said on Tuesday.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Sangma said the Cabinet approved the reclassification of IMFL brands along with amendments to the Meghalaya Excise Rules and Bonded Warehouse Rules, 2026.
He said two major decisions were taken as part of the reforms.
The first involves merging excise duty and VAT into a single ad valorem tax to be collected by the Excise department.
“Earlier, VAT was handled by the Taxation department. Now, it has been merged with excise duty and will be collected as one tax by the Excise department,” Sangma said.
Explaining the move, he said, “If Rs 100 was collected as excise duty and Rs 100 as VAT, it will now be Rs 200 as ad valorem. This will ensure only one department handles the overall excise revenue and streamline collection.”
The second decision involves increasing excise rates to reduce the price gap with neighbouring states.
Sangma said Assam and Arunachal Pradesh had recently increased excise duty on different products, widening the price difference with Meghalaya, particularly with Assam.
“We have decided to increase our rates to reduce this gap,” he said.
The revised rates are expected to generate around Rs 150 crore in additional revenue for the state, Sangma added.
