UK spirits duty is ’77 per cent higher than the EU average’

Cost of duty on a bottle of gin in the UK is 77 per cent higher than the EU average, stated a trade body recently, accusing Chancellor Jeremy Hunt of failing to back England’s national drink.

Analysis from the UK Spirits Alliance released ahead of this week’s budget found the cost of duty on a bottle of gin in the UK is 77 per cent higher than the EU average. The group is calling on Hunt to “give Brit drinkers and distillers a tonic and not a shot in the foot” by slashing booze duty in Wednesday’s budget.

“Drinkers in Paris, Madrid and Rome are ordering our gins at the double and paying just a fraction of the duty slapped on here,” reports quoted a spokesman for the UK Spirits Alliance as saying.

“Gin is England’s national spirit – you can imagine what a Frenchman might say to being told to hand the taxman 70 per cent of the value of a bottle of pastis? Or an Italian priced out of a shot of grappa?”

Spanish wine drinkers pay zero tax on their national beverage while people drinking sparkling wine in France pay just 15p of tax per glass.

The demand to back England’s national drink comes a month after distilleries last month slammed the government for leaving out spirits producers from the Energy Bill Relief scheme when other alcohol categories were included.

They said it “makes no sense given the high energy intensive nature of distilling”. They called on Hunt not to fuel industry costs by hiking excise duty in next month’s Budget.

A survey of distilleries conducted by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) found 27 per cent expect energy costs to rise by over half again in 2023 while two-thirds of distillers also expressed fears Hunt could increase alcohol duty in the Budget, which would come into force from August.

A new post-Brexit regime of alcohol duty, announced in 2021, is set to come into effect in August after being delayed by six months.

The Chancellor has ruled out further extending the introduction of the scheme, which will see drinks taxed on the basis of how much alcohol they contain, i reported. However, the exact level of duty to be levied on each drink has yet to be confirmed and is expected to be announced in the budget.