Franconian Beer Message Board
OT: Reduction in UK beer prices |
| Posted by Jason on 2013-03-21 06:13:37 |
| It will be interesting to see just how much this actually influences the price of a pint in the pub or bottle in the shop. Historically, adding 2-3pence to the pint would translate into a 10p actual rise in the pub. I'm not exactly sure why, but it maybe something to do with the denomination - you rarely get pints being sold for £3.11 or £2.93... it is rounded up to £3.20 or £3.00 to make it easier for staff and customers (and more expensive). Obviously this 1p reduction is in the duty charged, not the actual price of the pint, so it should impact on prices. The Chancellor did say the Government expected this saving to be passed on to the customer. I guess the biggest benefit of the 1p reduction in duty is that the price of a pint will not automatically go up due to the usual budget increase, which is a blessing. The BIGGEST victory for British drinkers in yesterdays budget was the scrapping of the beer duty escalator which was introduced by Labour in 2008 and automatically rose beer duty by 2% ABOVE inflation per year. This disgusting introduction led to a cumulative rise in duty of 42% since 2008. Before this was scrapped yesterday, the UK had the second highest rate of alcohol tax in Europe behind Finland - 13 times higher than Germany! This was in most part due to the efforts of CAMRA who gained some 108,000 signatories and lobbyed Parliament for this outcome. Great work. One thing that really angered me was the Whisky industry complaining that it was unfair that the duty escalator for beer was scrapped but it was not for wine or spirits - a representative said that a bottle of whisky would increase to £12.46 a bottle - in a pub in London you can pay £4.00 a pint for a 5% ale - how is it unfair that a bottle of 40% whisky which should take a month or more to drink (responsibly), should cost 3 times the price of something that can be sunk in 30 minutes?! Beer is a social drink for every day imbibing, the comparison with Whisky and spirits is absurd. |
| Followups: |
 OT: Reduction in UK beer prices by barryriley on 2013-03-21 06:43:26 |