Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Duty booze freeze toasted but distilling industry argues 76% tax

Post Thumbnail

Drinkers of beer, cider and spirits raised a glass to the chancellor after taxes were frozen in yesterday’s Budget.

But while the distilling industry welcomed the move, it argued that the 76% tax on a bottle of the national drink remained “too high” after it had lobbied for further reductions in duty.

Trade body the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said last year’s 2% cut in excise had helped boost revenue from spirits for the Treasury by £102million.

David Frost, the chief executive of the SWA, said: “We welcome the freeze in excise duty on spirits.

“We hope that this will sustain continued growth in the UK market for Scotch whisky and thus help improve the public finances.

“But tax is still 76% of the price of an average bottle of Scotch and the majority of the British public think that is unfairly high.

“We will continue to call for fairer taxation of Scotch, a vital UK industry, and we urge duty reductions in future years.”

Global drinks giant Diageo, which makes the world’s best-selling blended whisky, Johnnie Walker, was happy to toast Mr Osborne.

Andrew Cowan, managing director of Diageo Great Britain, said: “Scotch, as a homegrown industry, flies the flag for the UK abroad and the alcohol industry as a whole generates billions for the UK economy.

“This year’s freeze on beer and spirits will help to continue this.

“We have already seen the positive impact that last year’s duty cut had on industries such as Scotch whisky and so tonight, people across the nation will once again raise a toast to the chancellor.”

Mr Osborne told MPs that the duty freeze on beer, cider and spirits would support pubs and Scotland’s “vital” whisky industry.

He said: “The action we took in the last parliament on beer duty saved hundreds of pubs and thousands of jobs.

“Today I back our pubs again. I am freezing beer duty and cider duty too.

“Scotch whisky accounts for a fifth of all of the UK’s food and drink exports.

“So we back Scotland and back that vital industry too, with a freeze on whisky and other spirits duty this year.

“All other alcohol duties will rise by inflation as planned.”

Andy Fyffe, food and beverage expert at EY, said the duty freeze would deliver a welcome boost to UK sales, particularly for Scotch, which has faced export declines in recent years.

“For the manufacturers specifically, it should help to preserve domestic market sales and potentially alleviate some of the margin pressures experienced in recent years, ultimately boosting profits and protecting jobs across the industry,” said Mr Fyffe.