Aussie alcopop tax reignited
The Australian government’s quest to continue slapping a huge tax on alcopops is not yet over, and it has 365 million reasons - so far - to ensure that quest is a success.
It has two more sitting days of parliament to pass a retrospective law in favour of the tax, which has crippled the profits of liquor companies like Independent Liquor.
Liquor producers have been battling the 70% tax hike since it was introduced last April.
Since then, the government has pocketed an additional $A365 million in tax revenue on alcopop sales.
But the legislation required to allow this has never actually been passed. The deadline for this to happen is a year after the idea was first put to the House of Representatives, on budget night (May 13) last year.
It was defeated in the Senate by one vote last month but today, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the government has not given up on getting the law passed.
It has two more sitting days – May 12 and May 13 – to pass retrospective legislation justifying the money it has collected so far.
It also plans to introduce a new tariff proposal with effect from May 14, to ensure that the alcopops measure remains in place.
Independent Liquor was founded by New Zealander Michael Erceg and purchased by private equity firms Pacific Equity Partners and CCMP Capital Asia $1.26 billion after Mr Erceg’s death in a helicopter crash.
It has never publicly disclosed how much money the tax costs the company but it is speculated to be a large amount, as the higher price of alcopops encourage consumers to switch to other products.
Independent Liquor chief executive Doug McKay has said it is unfair to tax the drinks at a rate comparable to full strength spirits as it they had just 5 per cent alcohol, the same as beer.
About 60 percent of Independent’s sales are made in Australia.
Back to home
Back to top
Print
Latest
NBR SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Sign up for NBR subscriber content or email alerts
Comments and questions3
Good idea, do the same in New Zealand. These drinks were targeted at children from the start.
Bad Idea .The alternative is kids swigging from full strength bottles of spirits. A lot of mature people now take these RTD's to functions instead of wine or bottles of spirits which are far more intoxicating. These are a socially responsible idea in that the mix strength is stated on the container - unlike mixing your own.
Sounds like politicians trying to create a "social responsibility agenda " to justify yet another tax grab
Thats the story hike up the tax on low alcohol drinks,last time that was raised all the teenagers went and bought the real stuff,you know the 41% Vodka,Bourbon Etc and mixed it with Coke.Anderton was responsible for that Little stuff up.The elderly dubbed as the Sherry Tax and to others it was the so-called "teen-tax". But I suppose hike the price up get the teenagers off the Booze and onto what will be then the cheaper stuff called illicit drugs.Yer good one "A".