Sula low on spirit

Sula Vineyards seems to have lost its spirit today after the company announced that the interim stay order that it had received in terms of the order dated September 19, 2019, passed by the Minister (State Excise Revenue), Government of Maharashtra now stands vacated, effective 31st July’23.

This means that the demand notice from the excise department of Rs.115 crore ( its total revenue in FY23 was at Rs.114 crore) now needs to be settled.

The demand notice came in as excise duty was payable on wine which was manufactured using grapes from Maharashtra or by blending wine brought from across custom frontier or from other states.

Obviously, the company will be challenging the order in the Bombay High Court.

Following this news, the stock price naturally slumped; from its close of Rs.516.25, it opened more than 3.5% lower at Rs.496.65 and went down further to Rs.478.40, a decline of 7.5%.