Italy: Beer sector welcomes excise duty reduction
The Budget Law approved by Parliament at the end of 2021 brought the Italian beer sector a reduction of 5 cents on the excise duty rate for the whole of 2022, a discount of 50% for breweries with an annual production of less than 10,000 hectolitres, 30% for breweries with an annual production between 10,000 and 30,000 hectolitres and 20% for those with an annual production exceeding 30,000 hectolitres and up to 60,000, D1SoftBallNews.com reported on January 13.
The measure was welcomed by the sector, where AssoBirra, Coldiretti and Unionbirrai worked together and for a long time during the year just ended to pursue the request to the Government and Parliament to intervene on the tax burden from excise duties, in order to put the sector in the condition of recovering the losses suffered in the pandemic period (-1.4 billion euro of shared value in 2020), of engaging a new growth path for all companies in the sector and giving impetus to a significant development of the Italian beer supply chain, also from an agricultural point of view.
However, the turbulent examination of the Budget Law also affected beer, because after the approval of the amendment by AssoBirra, Coldiretti and Unionbirrai in the Budget Commission, the State General Accounting Office intervened again, raising problems of coverage, thus leading to a revision of the measure approved by limiting it to 2022 only. An unexpected cold shower, to which one is forced to make the best of a bad situation: the “rebound” announced starting from next year may somehow be, perhaps, still averted in the next manoeuvre.
“The recently approved Budget Law marks a turning point for the Italian beer sector,” comments Alfredo Pratolongo, President of AssoBirra. “As an Association we have been fighting for years to obtain a fairer tax burden on beer, a drink loved by all Italians, consumed mainly with meals and which over the years has shown increasing appreciation also from a cultural point of view and territorial and regional roots. However, to date, beer remains the only meal drink taxed in Italy. The reduction in 2022 is important, but the sector deserves more. Our goal is to make this reduction structural and no longer annual. Companies – whether large, medium or small – need certainty and not timed measures that discourage long-term plans.”
Excise duties on beer have been a long-debated topic. After a 30% increase in the three-year period 2013-2015, they had enjoyed a reduction of 2 cents in 2017 and 1 cent together with a 40% discount for craft breweries up to 10,000 hectolitres in 2019. Small reductions that had given a sign of strong confidence in the sector, which has responded with investments in production plants and new products, the birth of important artisan businesses, always paying great attention to policies of sustainability and responsible consumption. The so-called “Spring of Beer” suffered a setback with the pandemic: the crisis and the blockade of the Ho.Re.Ca. has put a strain on the production system and above all the distribution system.
“Our request in the Budget Law was an overall three-year structural reduction of 15 cents, in addition to the concessions for craft breweries up to 60,000 hectolitres,” concludes Pratolongo. “The support of the political forces in Parliament, together with the Government, has been broad and We ask that the spirit of the original proposal not be lost, where even politics and institutions have recognized how much the fiscal lever can be a lever of economic growth and work is done immediately to make the approved reductions stable.”
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