To the tax-beer-to-the-hilt brigade, I offer the following observation…. With us already having the dubious pleasure of being the most highly taxed country in the EU for beer, it’s now becoming very definitely a case of less is more from the Exchequer’s point-of-view.
As has been seen across the pond, by increasing the tax on beer by nearly nine per cent over the past three years, the UK Treasury is going to see a diminishment in its excise revenues on this product, dropping from £29 million in 2007 to a figure nearer £17 million in 2008/2009, according to the British Beer & Pub Association.
What with sinking on-trade beer sales being sucked into the vortex of spiralling costs and lessening demand there, sales of beer in pubs have struck their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The frothy, heady days of beer sales in the British pub peaked around 20 years ago. Since then beer sales in the on-trade have been in decline. Today, the pubs and clubs of Great Britain are selling 14 million pints less than in 1979 - and that’s 14 million pints less per day!
With all this going on, is the Chancellor seriously telling his public that raising the tax on beer in the Budget is going to lead to more income?
Let’s face it, beer sales are in trouble in the on-trade both here and in the UK and the on-trade is the only outlet which purportedly controls the environment in which people drink. Taxing beer will lead to more on-trade losses and increase the number of unsustainable businesses trying to keep their head above water. Result: further closures of rural pubs here and further isolation of rural communities, a rise in rural suicides and the loss of one more aspect of Irish culture that the developers haven’t already got to and seen off.
Are there lessons here for the tax-beer-to-the-hilt brigade?