The Swedish government has finally announced its plans for reducing taxes on alcohol. The government’s move was long expected. The sales of the Swedish drinks monopoly Systembolaget have diminished significantly since the European Union last January forced the country to raise the legal limit on alcohol imports. This lead to a great increase in purchases of alcoholic beverages in the neighbouring countries, where alcohol is considerably cheaper. Since then it has been argued that the tax on hard liquor should be lowered by at least 40 per cent in order to rescue Systembolaget’s sales. On the other hand, voices were heard that the tax cuts would lead to an increase in women’s abuse and alcohol related injuries involving teenagers.
It was not until the beginning of August that the Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson announced that he was in favour of lowering the country’s alcohol taxes. On the 23d August the government has officially made its plans known to cut the tax on spirits by 40%. Read more about it in The Local.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.