BRITISH BEER

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1933, Page 10

BRITISH BEER

LESS DUTY, MORE CONSUMED Colonel 0. V. Serocold, chairman of the big brewing firm of Watney Combe Reid /and Co., London, addrevsing shareholders in the company, referred to the lower beer duty and its effect on trade. During the months preceding the recent Budget the trade urged that-a radical reduction should be made in the penal rate of beer duty imposed under the Emergency Budget of September, 1931. In his Budget speech the Chancellor argued the subject of beer duty on the high basis of national revenue and recognised the force of contention that the unduly high price of beer has led to very seriously reduced consumption, with its, consequent reflection on .the revenue derived for the State. At the same time the reduced profits earned by the wholesale, retail, and allied trades had led to very much lower" returns for income tax, with every prospect of them becoming worse. The Chancellor- embodied in his Budget an alteration in the rate of beer duty, which enabled the trade to lower the retail price of beer by Id a pint, at the same time making it a condition that the strength of beer should be raised by 2 per cent, gravity. The public reap a substantial benefit bpth_ in price and in quality, and as a con/eq"uence the company's sales had increasla. The extent of the improvement was indicated in the Juhe Customs and excise figures relating to the industry as a whole. These show that the total output | of beer -in the United Kingdom then amounted to 1,340,767 barrels, compared with 1,209,366 barrels in June, 1932,' an increase of nearly 11 per cent. In the previous month the output rose from 1,246,100 barrels to 1,485,536 barrels.