Biannual beer tax price hike soars to $2.26 per litre of alcohol
Kicking back with the Australian beverage of choice just became even more expensive than what it cost on the weekend.
Townsville
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Tax hikes are hurting the hip pockets of our local breweries, after yet another increase came into effect for the humble frothy.
Aussies now pay $2.26 tax per litre of alcohol under the biannual beer tax price hike, with the latest increase coming into force on February 3.
A new report by economist and Emeritus Professor Kym Anderson from the University of Adelaide, commissioned by the Brewers Association of Australia, reveals Australia is paying the fourth highest beer tax of the world’s advanced industrial countries.
Australians are paying 17 times more than Germany, seven times more than the US and more than four times that of France for beer.
The tax excise goes up thanks to an automatic consumer price index increase that has slugged beer drinkers each February and August for the past 35 years.
Townsville Brewery head brewer Sam Lloyd said the tax hikes not only hurt the customer’s hip pocket but also local businesses.
“(The tax) is all passed on to the consumer but as far as business goes, it turns people off that extra beer to make that extra money for the business,” he said.
“The rate of tax is pretty high especially when there is a growing market there, (the Government) seems to be cashing in on that.”
The brewery has tried to absorb the tax increases over the last couple of years but has had to increase its prices twice due to the continual tax hikes, Mr Lloyd said.
He said the added costs made it much harder to expand to a wider market.
“If you had more profit in your product you would continue to expand and just have a little bit of loss on transport if you were selling wider,” he said. “With the amount of tax on beer, it makes things less desirable to make that happen.”
Originally published as Biannual beer tax price hike soars to $2.26 per litre of alcohol