The excise duty makes the cost of very good, but relatively inexpensive sparkling wines, prohibitive in Ireland, Neal Cassidy, managing director of Cassidy Wines has said.
He recently outlined that Irish drinkers are continuing to pay over the odds for a bottle of sparkling wine and that Ireland currently has the 'highest rates of duty on wine and sparkling wine, along with the third highest rates of duty on spirits and beer in the EU'.
Speaking with the Irish Times, Cassidy said, “The tax is ridiculously high and this has a huge impact, not only in terms of tourism but also on simple activities such as eating out.
"The stock answer to why excise duty is so high is that it is to discourage people from drinking too much but there isn’t a lot of evidence to show that it is working as a deterrent.”
Cassidy said that there's no question that there are problems with alcohol in Ireland but despite the fact that we have the highest duty in the European Union we still have these problems so maybe we should be looking for other answers than just revenue raising.
He outlined that consumers are being especially penalised for 'daring to like' sparkling wines such as prosecco and cava, which have become increasingly popular in recent years.
“There’s a huge anomaly going on here. It [the excise] is something that would have been brought in at a time when it only really affected Champagne, which was obviously an ultra luxury product." He added.
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Donna Ahern
