You tax booze, you lose: raising excise tax isn’t an option for finance minister

  • 📰 SundayTimesZA
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 45 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 21%
  • Publisher: 51%

Ireland News News

Ireland Ireland Latest News,Ireland Ireland Headlines

Aggressive excise tax increases on alcohol have given illicit trade an edge, with players quick to take the gap

A shopper browses bottles of red wine inside a Checkers supermarket in Rosebank shopping mall in Johannesburg.Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has a tough job to balance competing demands when he tables the 2022 budget on Wednesday.

The government already runs a large budget deficit, which means it must borrow more. The cost of that debt is taking up an ever larger chunk of the budget, which means cuts must be made. Yet our education, law enforcement and health systems need more resources, not fewer. Excise taxes on alcohol have been quadrupled since 2000, in the hope that this would encourage heavy drinkers to change their ways, but this hasn’t happened. Actually, per-capita alcohol consumption has stayed more or less the same.

The bans on alcohol of the past two years supercharged these underground networks by giving them an open field to grow, while legal businesses stayed shut. The alcohol value chain supports almost a million livelihoods, and the alcohol bans have left deep scars. The industry estimates it will take up to five years to get back to the operational levels of 2019.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 47. in İE
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

There’s no greater joy than having financial freedom and a life free of debts, that’s why I keep posting comments about TreytonAdam who guided me trading online

Ireland Ireland Latest News, Ireland Ireland Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

PATRICIA PILLAY: Excise relief will be critical to ensure the survival of our local beer industryBeer industry of SA asks the finance minister for excise relief for the devastated industry and to help job-creating SMMEs I never thought of meeting a legit bitcoin trader after been scammed many times at my age but the heavens sent williamchurch09 guided me and help me make a living through bitcoin with my coinbase app, I recommend you to meet him now and also be a beneficiary of good work
Source: BDliveSA - 🏆 12. / 63 Read more »