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Treasury

Answer

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the level of duty is in (a) the UK, (b) France and (c) Spain on (i) beer, (ii) wine and (iii) spirits; [155234] (2) if he will estimate the effect on United Kingdom duty revenues of equalising UK duty on (a) wine, (b) beer and (c) spirits with levels in France. [155239] John Healey: Alcohol duty rates in European Union member states are published in the European Commission's `Excise Duty Tables--Alcoholic Beverages'. The table gives figures for the UK, Spain and France from the tables published in December 2003, converted to pounds sterling from euros using the average exchange rate for December 2003 as published by the Office for National Statistics in Table 7.1A of "Financial Statistics", and converted to pounds per hectolitre per cent. of alcohol (where necessary) using an approximation of 12.5 Plato to 5 per cent. alcohol by volume (ABV). _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Wine Spirits Beer Still Sparkling Excise duty rate £/litre of £/h/1 per ABV £/hl ABV £/hl alcohol cent. alcohol p 48.91 Ý Ý 166.70 er cent. per cent. 4 per cent. per cent. UK 19.60 12.22 p 67.25 per cent. 5.5 p per cent. ; 158.69 Ý 8.5 Ý 220.54 per cent. per cent. 15 pe 15 pe per cent. per cent. 15 per 211.58 cent. to 22 per cent. Spain 5.20 1.43 0.00 0.00 France 10.20 1.83 2.39 5.90 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The second table shows the cost in excise duty and VAT revenue forgone if the UK were to apply the excise duty rates applicable in France in December 2003. These figures are derived from the HM Treasury alcohol demand model published in May 20031, which is used to estimate associated effects on demand. This shows that the total cost of equalising excise duty rates for beer, wine and spirits with those in France would be more than £6 billion, equivalent to a 1.5 per cent. increase in the standard rate of VAT or around 2p extra on the basic rate of income tax. Revenue Forgone _________________________________________________________________________________________________. £ billion Spirits 0.80 Beer 3.44 Wine 1.88 Total 6.12 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Further technical details relating to this econometric model can be found in Government Economic Service Working Paper No. 140.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

418 c372W;418 c388W; 155234;155239

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Alcoholic drinks Beer Excise duties France Wines Tax yields Spirits Spain

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk