Beer: Excise Duties
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to monitor whether reductions in beer duty are being passed on to (a) consumers and (b) publicans.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
A new duty structure for alcoholic products was introduced in August 2023. This included a new Draught Relief which is a reduced rate of Alcohol Duty applied to qualifying alcoholic products sold in the on-trade (e.g. pubs, bars) under 8.5% ABV.
The government estimated the cost of Draught Relief as £145m for 24-25 and published it here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs.
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor also announced a duty cut on qualifying draught products – approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This is the equivalent to a 1p reduction on a typical pint, and means draught beer now pays 13.9% less in duty than its packaged equivalents.
HMRC plans to evaluate the impact of the new alcohol duty rates and structures, including Draught Relief, three years after the changes took effect on 1 August 2023. Three years allows time for HMRC to gather a broad range of data to properly evaluate the impacts. The Government welcomes evidence from industry on the impact of the changes so far.
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