The Dutch beer brewers presented the House of Representatives with a petition on Tuesday afternoon against a proposed increase in excise duties on beer. The government wants to increase taxes from January 1. As a result, a beer with a high alcohol content must become considerably more expensive. This mainly affects the smaller beer breweries.
Brouwerij Stijl in Almere is concerned about the plans. These must be implemented to reduce excessive drinking, the government says. The government uses the proceeds from excise duties to combat poverty. An average beer should increase in price by about two cents, but specialty beers with a high alcohol percentage will become about twenty cents more expensive, says Anneke Geraards of the Almere brewery.
Geraards says he welcomes the fight against alcohol abuse, but thinks that it will not help in this way. “We are being hit hard, while the group that consumes excessive alcohol is not among us. Our beers are expensive and exclusive.” It is also difficult to pass on rising costs to the customer again, she says.
Style thinks about the future
The Almere brewery is in good shape. “But we are carefully calculating what will come out of it and whether it is still feasible on this scale,” says Geraards, with a view to the proposed increase in excise duties. She expects that several small breweries will not survive the measure. She does not yet dare to say whether Stijl is among them.
About 81,000 beer lovers have recently signed the petition. Geraads wonders whether these signatures will help to get the excise tax increase off the table. “I have a hard time about that, but it is important that our customers and consumers understand why we are doing this.”