Calls to slash the tax on tap beer to get drinkers back in pubs

Australia’s brewers want the government to follow the UK’s lead and cut the tax rate on draught beer to help pubs struggling to recover from lockdowns.

Australia’s brewers want the government to follow the UK’s lead and cut the tax rate on draught beer to help pubs struggling to recover from lockdowns.

The call comes as new research shows Australian drinkers could soon be paying the world’s third-highest beer taxes.

Last week the UK government sliced 5 per cent off the tax paid on tap beer, which will save around 3p (about 5.5c) a pint. It also scrapped planned tax­ ­increases.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (left) and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have reduced the tax on tap beer to encourage people to go back to pubs. Picture: AFP

In making the ­announcement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said there were clear public health benefits from people drinking in pubs rather than at home.

The move is designed to encourage drinkers back to pubs after 18 months of lockdowns.

Brewers Association CEO John Preston said the Australian government should follow the UK’s lead.

“The British government has recognised the plight of the country’s pubs and have ­delivered the biggest tax cut for draught beer drinkers in 50 years,” he said.

“Australia’s pubs and clubs have done it just as tough but our beer taxes are not only some of the highest in the world, they’re heading in the wrong direction.”

Research conducted by researchers at the University of Adelaide for the Brewers Association found that in the next two years Australia is set to overtake Japan to become the country with the third-highest beer taxes on the planet, behind only Norway and Finland.