craftap draft beer dispensers at the craft brewers conference and brew expo america

Beer duty cut calls are ignored in UK

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has ignored calls for beer duty cuts in his plan for closing the country’s yawning budget deficit.

Last April Darling slapped an extra 2% on beer duty – upped by 18% throughout the previous year – to help offset the Treasury’s bid to stimulate the economy by cutting VAT.

In his pre-budget report, released today, Darling said existing rates will remain after VAT reverts to 17.5% in January. He voiced no plans for further hikes. Darling today claimed the VAT cut “countered the impact on businesses of the global credit squeeze and the collapse in consumer demand when it was needed most”.

The industry claims its treatment at the hands of the Treasury has contributed to its decline. Overall UK beer sales fell 2% in the last fiscal year, with volumes dipping to their lowest level since 1975.Pubs are closing at a record rate of 50 a week, according to the British Beer & Pub Association, which had campaigned for a reversal in the beer duty hikes.

Yesterday the body said the government creams off £7.2 billion of the £19 billion the British beer trade generates, five times more than pub and brewing companies.

Shortened version of the article by Rob Brown at
http://www.brewersguardian.com