BBPA renews calls for beer duty slash
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) has renewed its demands for a cut in beer duty rates.
The calls come after ferry company Hoverspeed announced it is planning to sue Customs and Excise (C&E) for up to £30m.
Hoverspeed claims heavy-handed tactics of C&E officers are putting people off travelling across the Channel. C&E has been cracking down on alcohol smuggling by randomly searching and confiscating the belongings of holidaymakers.
The BBPA and other trade leaders welcomed the Hoverspeed move which they hope will prompt a government re-think on the issue of high duty levels in the UK.
They claim that if C&E can no longer use the heavy-handed approach ministers will have to consider a duty cut.
Mark Hastings, director of communications for the BBPA, said: "Beer duty should be cut. The answer to all of these problems is in the government's hands. Not only is it losing all the tax revenue that would be gained through people spending money on beer in the UK, it is also spending all this money on preventive measures."
Stuart Neame, of Kent brewer Shepherd Neame, said: "The heavy-handed approach has not solved the problem of our duty being out of line.
"All C&E has done is to pick on the small guy and push all the smuggling into the hands of the big guys, who then go ahead and sell a lot of beer, and that competes unfairly with pubs."
Last August the BBPA made a similar call to the government after a group of Hoverspeed passengers won a landmark case against Customs. The High Court ruled C&E had no right to randomly search passengers and confiscate their vehicles, without "reasonable grounds".
Hoverspeed said it has taken this action to protect the rights of the travelling public, because C&E is still unfairly targeting people taking part in legitimate cross-Channel shopping. C&E has said it will "vigorously defend the case".
High duty leads to smuggling
More than 80 per cent of licensees believe the high duty rates on wine and beer lead to increases in smuggling.
According to a poll on thePublican.com in April this year, 81 per cent of licensees believed that Chancellor Gordon Brown's 1p budget increase on a pint of beer and 4p on a bottle of wine during the last Budget would encourage more people to smuggle goods in from abroad.
