Aust, beer tax relief plea made

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 15

Aust, beer tax relief plea made

NZPA-AAP Canberra Australia’s main brewers have called on the Federal Government to introduce a tax on table wine in the forthcoming Budget. The demand is made in the Australian Associated Brewers’ 1984-85 Budget submission to the Federal Government which has as its theme “shared tax is fair tax.”

The brewers also seek an end to automatic increases in beer tax through indexation, and a freeze on any further rises in beer taxation pending major reform of the whole indirect taxation system during 1985.

The submission reveals that if beer received the same tax-exempt status as wine, the working man would pay only 67c for nis

bottle of beer instead of sAustl.l6. It also shows that the beer drinker is now taxed at almost four times the rate of sales tax on luxury items such as jewellery and fur coats, five times the rate on cars, and more than 15 times the tax rate on ordinary household items such as furniture and refrigerators. The main thrust of the submission is evidence that last year’s Federal Budget decision to apply automatic indexation to beer tax has been self-defeating. Beer prices have been pushed up 10 per cent, beer sales are falling at. double the rate of previous years, and the Government will be at least ?Austs7 million (5NZ76.9 million) short in its Budget estimate of beer tax revenue.