How will the "Polish Deal" affect alcohol wholesalers?

As part of the Polish Deal, many changes and social programs are announced, the implementation of which is quite costly. Therefore, it is a heavy burden on the state budget. There are many indications that its proper balancing will require finding additional sources of income.

One of them may be the unification of the rules of taxation of spirits and beer.

Will the beer become more expensive?

A statistical Pole consumes 194 cans or bottles of beer a year. The assumption is that the money obtained from higher beer taxation is to be used to treat diseases caused by excessive alcohol consumption. There is much more to it. The dispute over increasing the excise tax on beer has been going on for a long time between the spirit and brewing industries. The former pay tax on the alcohol content in the product, the latter do not - in the case of beer, the excise duty is calculated in a different way. It is spirits that account for 69 percent of the budget revenues from excise duty on alcohol. The spirits industry wants everything to be standardized. More expensive beer will be less competition for other beverages, which will be beneficial to strong alcohol wholesalers.

Raising the beer excise tax could bring a large injection of money to the state budget. Its producers, however, fear that then beer with an alcohol content of 10 percent, sold in a 0.9 liter bottle, would increase by PLN 5.13. In 2020, beer sales accounted for approximately 46 percent of the value of the Polish alcoholic beverages market. Increasing prices would mean fewer people could afford to buy them, and producers would suffer. This could lead to a situation where more people try to obtain alcohol through smuggling and illegal production. Currently, Poland is the third largest beer producer in the European Union, but an increase in prices could change this.

In addition, at the beginning of 2022, and more precisely on January 1, the excise tax is to increase again by 10 percent. Every year, until 2027, it will be increased by another 5 percent. This project was introduced quite unexpectedly and was a big surprise for entrepreneurs who are not sure what taxes will be paid in the future, and accountants do not know how to settle them.

Is there any compromise?

In a situation where a can of beer would cost an average of PLN 10, the government would have to take into account the great dissatisfaction of the public, and the benefits of the Polish Deal in this light would be unnoticeable. As a result, proposals for compromise solutions appeared in the public space.

One idea is to additionally tax only the cheapest beers and those with above-average alcohol content. According to some, the cheapest beers do not have any value for a true beer drinker, but only facilitate alcoholization. So it would be good for their price to increase a bit. The situation is similar for beers with a high alcohol content, ranging from 7 to 10 percent.