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Are high alcohol duties good for our drinks industry and drinkers?


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It might sound odd but I think high alcohol duties are good for our drinks industry and for drinkers?

 

Imagine a bottle of good malt whisky that sells at £28. Compare it to a bottle of Lidl own brand Scotch at say £7. The malt is 4 times the price but still sells because it is a premium product. Knock £5 duty off each and you have a £23 bottle of malt competeing with a £2 supermaket whisky that is less than 1/10 the price.

 

Similarly knock 50p off the price of a pint of beer and supermarkets would be virtually giving it away. Pubs would never compete.

 

Duty raised from alcohol is easy to collect and saves us paying some other tax anyhow. So on ballance I think high alcohol duty is more of a benefit than a bind.

 

What do others think?

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The latest I saw was that the Govt and Civil Servants were getting together to try and pass laws that differentiate between certain types of cider. A locally produced real cider, made from apples, would suffer a lower rate of duty than mass produced chemicals like White Lightning, which have never been near an apple in their life.

 

Sounds good to me if they can properly frame the legislation.

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It might sound odd but I think high alcohol duties are good for our drinks industry and for drinkers?

 

Imagine a bottle of good malt whisky that sells at £28. Compare it to a bottle of Lidl own brand Scotch at say £7. The malt is 4 times the price but still sells because it is a premium product. Knock £5 duty off each and you have a £23 bottle of malt competeing with a £2 supermaket whisky that is less than 1/10 the price.

 

Similarly knock 50p off the price of a pint of beer and supermarkets would be virtually giving it away. Pubs would never compete.

 

Duty raised from alcohol is easy to collect and saves us paying some other tax anyhow. So on ballance I think high alcohol duty is more of a benefit than a bind.

 

What do others think?

I realise I might be being a bit thick but i'm not sure I see your point
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I realise I might be being a bit thick but i'm not sure I see your point

 

In short, the point appears to be that a high tax on a product has less effect on an expensive product than it does on a cheap one.

 

Whether it's a good point or not, I do not know. It's certainly a true statement, as her whisky example shows.

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In short, the point appears to be that a high tax on a product has less effect on an expensive product than it does on a cheap one.

 

Whether it's a good point or not, I do not know. It's certainly a true statement, as her whisky example shows.

Cheers. You're certainly true but so what? We all knew that, how does this relate specifically to the drinks industry or drinkers?
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