SWA urges to relook at proposed spirits duty increase

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has launched a campaign asking the UK government to reconsider its spirits duty hike, which is being planned in August.

In the UK’s spring budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced that there would be a hike in the duty of Scotch whisky and other spirits by 10.1 percent from August.

Whereas SWA’s Keep The Commitment campaign urges the UK government to uphold its 2019 pledge to “review alcohol duty to ensure our tax system is supporting Scottish whisky and gin producers and protecting 42,000 jobs supported by Scotch across the UK”.

According to the 2019 manifesto of the UK government, Scotch whisky was a national export, supporting 42,000 jobs across the UK. Still the tax on each bottle of Scotch sold in the country represented almost three quarters of its price. However, over the past two years, the UK government froze the duty on spirits, thereby cutting the price of a bottle of Scotch in the UK by 30p. Now, the government has planned to do more, which is why they will review alcohol duty to ensure that the tax system is supporting British drink producers.

However, the tax burden on Scotch whisky has increased from 70 percent to 75 percent of the average bottle price since that promise was made, and the tax gap between spirits and other alcohol categories in the UK has grown wider. This has probably induced the campaign by SWA.