The government is considering an increase in alcohol taxes. The measure has not yet been detailed, or even officially confirmed, but it is one of the planned ways to complete the next Social Security budget. Alcohol, whether it is wine, beer or stronger drinks such as rum or spirits, is subject to so-called “behavioral” taxes, the aim of which is to influence the consumer to dissuade him from practices that are harmful to his health, such as excessive alcohol consumption. And that’s where Bercy looks.
0.3 cents per wine
“Excise taxes” apply to alcoholic beverages (as well as tobacco and petroleum). More specifically, these taxes now amount to 3.98 euros per hectoliter for still wines, that is, around 0.04 euros per liter. They rise to 7.82 euros/hl for beer and 9.85 euros/hl for crémant and champagne. It is hard liquor, in fact, that is the most taxed, by far. For example, 917.72 euros/hl of pure alcohol contained in the finished product (9.2 euros/litre) are needed for French overseas rums.
The “excise taxes” are revalued each year according to inflation. It is the calculation of this annual revaluation that the government plans to change to index them more closely to inflation. This revaluation is calculated based on the price increase for year N-2 (2021 by 2023, for example) and is capped at 1.75%. The executive would now like to calculate it from year N-1 and eliminate the ceiling. According the echoesthese taxes would increase by around 5% in 2024 if the measure were applied, compared to only 1.6% in 2023 despite the inflationary context.
On the consumer side, if such a measure were applied, 0.3 cents would have to be added when buying a bottle of wine, a fairly minimal increase in the end. It would be much higher for strong alcohol, around 1-2 euros, depending the echoes.
Anger of the winegrowers
The issue is hot in wine regions, especially Bordeaux and Languedoc, which have rallied local elected officials to their cause. The winegrowers, although they would not be the most penalized by a rise in excise taxes, made their voices heard as soon as the government project was announced at the beginning of summer. “It would be a very bad sign,” Jérôme Despey, first vice president of the FNSEA in charge of the wine sector, reacted again this Monday morning on BFMTV, believing that the latter “was already highly taxed” in France.
Even in the majority, the idea is causing a stir and Bercy may well abandon it with the introduction of the 2024 Social Security Funding Bill (PFLSS) at the start of the school year. The promoters of the project praise the benefits in terms of public health of a tax increase, especially in the fight against alcoholism. On BFMTV, the doctor Bernard Basset, president of the French Addictions Association, lamented on Monday “a form of censorship of public health”, while “the damage is extremely important”, evoking 40,000 deaths per year.
Source: BFM TV
