Beer price rises after tax bump

GEELONG’S beer buffs will be paying even more for their favourite brew today, after taxes increased yesterday.

The latest Australian alcohol tax bump came as the Brewers Association of Australia (BAA) slammed the twiceyearly excise rate indexation, warning “beer tax is now out of control”.

BAA chief executive Brett Heffernan warned 42 per cent of the retail price on a carton of beer was going straight to the taxman — with about $22 tax on a $52 typical carton of 4.9 per cent beer.

“It’s getting to the point that having a beer with your mates is beyond the reach of ordinary Australians,” Mr Heffernan said. “By far the biggest cost in the price of a typical Australian beer is tax. It’s not the ingredients, production costs, advertising, transport or even retail overheads and profits … it’s Australian Government tax.

“Most Aussies simply are not aware they are being hit so hard, or so often, with beer tax. Beer tax has been going up every six months for the last 35 years. This latest slug is the 71st consecutive hike.”

A BAA-commissioned report by economist and Emeritus Professor Kym Anderson AC from the University of Adelaide found Australians pay the fourth highest beer tax of the world’s ‘advanced industrial countries’.

It reported Aussies were paying $2.26 per litre of alcohol, which it found was 17times more than Germany ($0.13), seven-times more than the US ($0.31) and almost double that of New Zealand ($1.26).