SABMiller asks government to freeze beer excise
In an April 2013 submission to the Federal Treasury, Carlton & United Breweries (CUB), the Australian unit of SABMiller (formerly known as Foster’s) maintained that "the beer industry is no longer recession proof and it’s time that beer received similar favours to those enjoyed by wine and other beverages." CUB asked the Treasurer to follow the lead of the UK government, which earlier this year cut beer excise for the first time in over half a century, saying that tax now makes up 50 percent of the price of a case of VB, its major-selling beer.
As John Harvey writes from Adelaide, Australia has one of the highest beer excise rates in the world – "we pay AUD 32 per litre of pure alcohol compared, for example, with about AUD 3 in Germany, AUD 6 in Canada and AUD 28 in UK".
The announcement of the submission brought a statement from Mr Michael Thorn of the Foundation for Alcohol Research, asking instead for a significant increase in beer excise. Mr Thorn argued that "beer drinkers are sadly responsible for most of the problems we see on our streets from irresponsible drinking and we know that price is the key determinant."
To this, Australian Brews News, a trade publication, replied: "Why single out beer? Perhaps it would do Mr Thorn a world of good to pop into any one of the hundreds of bars, restaurants, cocktail joints and brewery bars in Australia to see beer drinkers enjoying their favourite brews responsibly while contributing to the more than AUD 6 billion that tax revenue swipes from beer and other alcohol. And as to his generalisation about lower beer pricing? Maybe he could climb the bar and ask for a show of hands of those who would happily drink more beer in a session if the tax were relaxed. Would they suddenly become irresponsible for the sake of a few cents and wander off into the night to king-hit some unsuspecting stranger?"
John’s comment is noteworthy: "The brewing industry in Australia has for years suffered from high excise rates, plus a seemingly biased system for its automatic indexation, a review of which is long overdue. However, given reports of current problems with Federal and State budgets, I for one am not holding my breath for the Treasurer to look favourably on CUB’s worthy submission…but I hope I am wrong for the sake of all brewers – big and small."
