«British ale is warm, but the duty on a pint is frozen,» Hunt told MPs. He added that the duty on draught products in pubs would be up to 11p lower than that of supermarkets. The 10.1 per cent rise in duty will hit demand for other beverages, including bottled beer, wines and spirits, that do not benefit from tax relief, warned industry groups. A long-awaited shake-up of the duty system also planned for August, which will tax drinks in relation to their alcohol content, will mean the wine will be hit by an even bigger tax increase of about 20 per cent, or 44p a bottle, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.
«Duty on non-draught beer will rise, and the measures introduced today won’t rebalance the catastrophic impact soaring inflation and unfair energy contracts on both pubs and the breweries that supply them,» McClarkin added. «Where we save in one area, we’re getting hit in another area,» said Oliver Robinson, managing director of Robinsons Brewery & Pubs, who said the rise in corporation tax to 25 per cent from April would outweigh the benefits of draught relief. A combination of the higher alcohol duty and the higher shake-up means taxes on port and sherry will rise 44 per cent, while the 20 per cent tax increase on wine would be its most significant in nearly 50 years, according to the WSTA. Mark Kent, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, said a «historic blow» had been dealt to the industry by the lack of a wider alcohol duty freeze.
I understand they need money and it makes a bit of sense to tax drinks based on their alcohol content but maybe it should have been 20%. Maybe 10% or such. It seems way too much.
ReplyDeleteThese measures will affect sales and the whole industry will be done for at least an year and they will get less tax so we'll be where we started. They could have increased it by 5% which would have been much better and then increased it again in 3 by another 5-10%.
DeleteEven a 7-8% increase now and another one in 1 year would have been better. They need money but this isn’t the best way to get it, I think.
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