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Finance Bill

The price of whisky is going up, mainly because the Government keep on putting the duty up higher than the rate of inflation. We saw it in last year's Budget and back in December, and we are now seeing it again. A successful industry such as the Scotch whisky industry should be encouraged, not penalised by constant rises in duty. The Government put forward two arguments for the duty increases—health and the tax yield. However, if health was the reason, the tax per unit of alcohol would be the same for all beverages, with the result that the tax on whisky would come down and that on beers and wines would go up. As for the tax yield argument, there is a severe danger that increasing the duty will lead to a lower yield because of consumer resistance to buying at the higher price. The constant rises are likely to have a devastating effect on employment in the industry, so I urge the Committee to reject them tonight.