Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Darlings Hits Drinkers Again - Duty on Whisky up 2%

I have not got the official figures from Mr Darling yet as to what the new duty rate will be but it says in several sources that it is to rise by 2%. Yet again hitting the whisky drinker in the pocket! All in all though most of this is psychologically damaging than actually financial for serious whisky consumers.

At present duty on spirits is £22.20 per litre of alcohol. 2% on this would increase the duty to £22.64 per litre of pure alcohol. So for a standard bottle of whisky 70cl x 40% Abv the duty will rise from £6.22 to £6.34 per bottle an increase of £0.12 per bottle. By the time you add VAT and say a retailers mark up this will equate to say £0.21.

So even if you were buy 1 bottle of whisky a week this will only see you out of pocket by £10.92!

So yes the budget is a pain in the arse and will cost us money but it is not as bad as people think. Many people think the price of the whole bottle will go up by 2% and that is where budget increases can be dangerous!

1 comment:

Grayson said...

this is just bull shit. Government is trying to earn as much money as it can. for example it has increase tax on cigars and now increase duty on whiskeys. the cuban cigar which was sold on £6.20 per packet is now £7 per packet. I am not happy.