BRATISLAVA, October 12, (WEBNOVINY) — More than 150,000 people have already signed a petition against discrimination of Slovak brewing business. Such a high number of signatures collected in one week since announcement of the petition is great gratification, according to head of the Slovak Association of Breweries Roman Sustak. “The Slovak brewing industry and people who work there deserve that member of parliament who will vote on their future, learn about it,“ informs the association. General directors and employees in Slovak breweries want to hand over the petition to the speaker of parliament on Wednesday before noon and subsequently symbolically bury the Slovak beer. “A symbolic funeral should manifest what will happen if parliament passes suggested excise tax hike and thus really bury the Slovak brewing industry,“ said Sustak.
Slovak breweries find the Cabinet-approved increase of the excise tax on beer to be a discriminatory measure. Breweries announced a petition against the excise tax hike to address the general public and drum up support for arguments of brewers. The planned hike in the excise tax on beer by almost half may seriously endanger the whole brewing business as well as many jobs in cooperating sectors.
The Cabinet suggests increasing the excise tax on beer from EUR 1.65 to EUR 2.45 per hectoliter and the Plato degree. Breweries should thus pay excise tax amounting to EUR 24.50 per hectoliter from a ten-degree beer and EUR 29.40 from twelve-degree beer. Excise tax for small breweries should increase from EUR 1.22 to EUR 1.82 per hectoliter and Plato degree. Small breweries should thus pay EUR 18.20 per hectoliter from a ten-degree beer and EUR 21.84 per hectoliter from a twelve-degree beer.
SITA