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In the Netherlands, excise duty on alcohol will be increased by 8.4% from 1 January. This means that the tax on still and sparkling wines with more than 8.5% by volume will rise from 88.30 euros per hectolitre to 95.69 euros (plus 7.39 euros). For wines with more than 15% by volume, the additional price is 12.50 euros per hectolitre. However, the increase only amounts to a few cents per bottle of wine.
The increase is only half as large as initially planned by the Dutch government. The tax proposal included an increase of 16.3 per cent to finance the fight against poverty. Representatives of the wine trade association KVNW fear that more and more consumers will buy their wine abroad, especially in Germany, where there is no excise duty on alcohol and other products are also cheaper for the Dutch. It is therefore questionable whether additional revenue could be generated at all. In addition, more and more cities in the country - such as Groningen, Utrecht, Haarlem and Almere - have decided to ban the advertising of alcoholic beverages on city-owned premises. The city of Groningen, for example, recently banned advertising in public spaces for alcohol, gambling, meat and fossil fuels. The ban applies to the approximately 800 billboards owned by the city.
With this increase, the Netherlands is following a recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which advocates significantly higher taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks. According to a WHO study from 2017, a 50 per cent price increase for alcohol could "help prevent 21 million deaths over the age of 50". States could generate around 15 billion euros in additional revenue over the same period. According to the WHO, there are excise duties on alcohol in 148 countries. However, wine is excluded from this in at least 22 countries, especially in Europe. The WHO clearly criticises this.
(al / Source: vitisphere; rnd; stap.nl)