BRITS are facing the biggest tax hike on gin and whisky since the English Civil War – unless Jeremy Hunt steps in.
Spirit duties face a 14.2 per cent RPI hike next year- which campaigners say would be the biggest single clobbering since excise duty was first implemented in 1643.
Distillers warn it will see them left with just £3.50 after tax from the average £15.34 bottle of spirits to invest, pay suppliers, wages sand cover all their business costs.
Ex-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced plans to freeze booze duties from February 2023 at September’s mini-Budget.
But his successor Jeremy Hunt cancelled that when he took over.
Now without an invention from the Treasury, the crippling hike will hit producers and drinkers within months.
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Last night the UK Spirits Alliance hit out: “With spirits duty already one of the highest in the world, this is now set to rise to almost 80% per bottle, and will be a 16% tax increase on consumers, at a time when they can least afford it.”
