Price of alcohol remains unchanged in Budget

by Alice Scarsi and Valeria Fiore

Taxpayers will have to keep drinking with moderation for yet another year if they don’t want to be burdened by alcohol duty.

In his first Spring Budget Statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond confirmed last year’s Spring Budget’s duty on alcohol would remain the same. Drinkers will keep paying 52p a pint in duty, the second highest beer tax in Europe.

Last year’s duties on wine, cider and spirit remained unchanged as well. The excise varies according to the strength of the drink and the amount of alcohol included in it.

However, because of the rising inflation rate, alcohol consumers are still going to spend more on their drinks. Associations of brewers and wine producers felt let down by the Chancellor’s decision.

“Between Brexit’s impact on the pound and rising inflation, the wine and spirit businesses face a tough trading landscape,” said Miles Beale, Chief Executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association. “This is a missed opportunity to back British businesses and help out struggling consumers,” he added.

Several companies have already taken measures to fight the inflationary spike, as confirmed by Tony Osborne, Manager of The Rising Sun pub in Carter Lane.

“I don’t know how we are going to be directly affected by this duty freeze. What is sure so far is that our suppliers have already increased the costs of their products last week”.

St Pauls Tobacco, an off-licence located nearby, is experiencing a drop in revenue due not only to  inflation, but also to the business tax.

Malami Patali, customer assistant, said:  “The store is already struggling because in the last two years the area emptied, as other shops moved to cheaper areas like Canary Wharf. We can’t raise the prices of our alcohol products anymore or we would scare away even the few customers that we still have.”

However, this rainy Budget day brought also some good news. Mr Hammond has announced a £1,000 discount on business rate bills for all pubs with a rateable value of less than £100,000. This includes 90% of all pubs in the country. There’s hope that this measure will halt the number of pub closures.