Brown gets wine drinkers to cough up


Clearly Chancellor Brown didn't bother to read Rob Malcolm's plea for leniency in today's Budget. Here’s what was actually announced in today’s Budget statement:

 
1.      In his eleventh Budget statement, the Chancellor Gordon Brown MP announced:

   – A duty increase of 5 pence per bottle of wine (equivalent to 1 pence per 175 ml glass)
   – A duty increase of 7 pence per bottle of sparkling wine
   – A freeze in duty on spirits
   – A duty increase of 1 pence per pint of beer
   – A duty increase of 1 pence per litre of cider

2.      These changes will come into effect from midnight on Sunday 25 March.

3.      The Chancellor also announced that from April 2008 Corporation Tax will be reduced from 30 to 28 pence and the lowest rate of income tax will be reduced from 22 to 20 pence. He also announced that road tax for the most fuel inefficient cars will go up from £220 to £400 next year.

4.      The Wine and Spirit Trade Association submitted its Budget proposals to the Chancellor in early 2007. In early March Christopher Carson (Constellation Europe), Tim How (Majestic) and Adrian McKeon (Beam Global) joined WSTA Chief Executive Jeremy Beadles to present the WSTA Submission to Financial Secretary to the Treasury John Healey MP.

6.      The WSTA Budget Submission called for:

   – Announcement of changes to wine duty in the Pre-Budget Report;
   – Specific reductions in the regulatory burden to promote business development and entrepreneurship;
   – A freeze in the excise duty rates for wine and fortified wine;
   – A freeze in the excise duty rates for spirits;
   – Parity in still and sparkling wine excise duty rates.

Who reckons they will pay more in increased wine duty than they will save from this unexpected decrease in income tax then?