www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Village officials say sales of liquor at stores like Costco and Binny’s will offset any sales tax revenue lost by an alcohol tax decrease. (Michelle Manchir/Tribune)
Bolingbrook shoppers will pay a little less in taxes for alcohol they buy at retail stores beginning next year.
Village trustees approved with a 5-0 vote to cut the tax from 6 percent to 3 percent on packaged wine, beer and liquor.
Mayor Roger Claar said the recent opening of Binny’s at the Promenade and of Costco, with their large volume of sales and regional attraction, will offset any revenue lost from the sales tax. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 12/16/10) triblocal.com, 12/15/10 Comment: That means more sales and more harm from alcohol. Shouldn’t trustees be trusted?

With News from the EU-Commission, -Parliament, European Countries, from the WHO, the World, Research and Publication, the Alcohol Industry, etc.
http://eurocare.sydesy.com/press/newsletter/winter_edition_2010

– Thailand will never give trade benefits higher priority than public health, declared Thai Prime Minister Abhisit at this year’s National Alcohol Conference in Bangkok.
More than 800 national and international representatives from civil society, academics, health professionals, government representatives and many other groups, representing millions of people, is a strong force. But is it strong enough to keep alcohol out of the Free Trade Agreements negotiations and strengthen the protection of public health?
This was one of the issues raised during the 6th National Alcohol Conference, NAC, in Thailand, held the 22 – 23 November in Bangkok. This year’s conference was jointly hosted by Center for Alcohol Studies, CAS and Integrated Management of Alcohol Intervention Program, IMAP and the theme for conference was “Alcohol in the Globalized World”. (Source: ADD, 12/13/10)

The price of a drink: levels of consumption and price paid per unit of alcohol by Edinburgh’s ill drinkers with a comparison to wider alcohol sales in Scotland.
To compare alcohol purchasing and consumption by ill drinkers in Edinburgh with wider alcohol sales in Scotland.
Patients consumed mean 197.7 UK units/week. The mean price paid per unit was £0.43 (lowest £0.09/unit) (£1 = 1.6 US$ or 1.2€), which is below the mean unit price, £0.71 paid in Scotland in 2008. Of units consumed, 70.3% were sold at or below £0.40/unit (mid-range of price models proposed for minimum pricing legislation by the Scottish Government), and 83% at or below £0.50/unit proposed by the Chief Medical Officer of England. The lower the price paid per unit, the more units a patient consumed. A continuous increase in unit price from lower to higher social status, ranked according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (based on postcode), was not seen; patients residing in postcodes in the mid-quintile paid the highest price per unit. Cheapness was quoted commonly as a reason for beverage choice; ciders, especially ‘white’ cider, and vodka were, at off-sales, cheapest per unit. Stealing alcohol or drinking alcohol substitutes was only very rarely reported. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/11/10) onlinelibrary.wiley.com Comment: It shows that the price is relevant for heavy drinkers. The solution are alcohol taxes combined with minimal price. Perhaps separated between pubs and retailer shops.

On November 22, 2010 the World Health Organization (WHO) released its annual Health report on financing health systems and universal coverage. The report recommends governments to raise the taxes on tobacco and alcohol to help pay for healthcare of millions of people who are unable to afford it worldwide.
The need for guidance in this area has become all the more pressing at a time characterized by both economic downturn and rising health-care costs, as populations age, chronic diseases increase, and new and more expensive treatments
become available. (Source: Eurocare Newsletter Winter 2010 )

Cheap supermarket deals on alcohol are short-termist and damaging to alcohol brand building, while helping to reduce the value of Christmas to the alcohol industry.  That’s the view of research company Mintel as a new study showed that spending on alcohol in the fourth quarter declined from £11.5bn in 2009 (probably 2008, htm) to £10.4bn in 2009, costing the industry over a billion pounds in lost revenue. It forecasts a bigger drop this year…. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 12/03/10) morningadvertiser.co.uk, 12/03/10

The HM Treasury today announced plans to change beer duty for certain strengths as part of Government plans ‚to review alcohol taxation to tackle problem drinking without unfairly penalising responsible drinkers, pubs and important local industries.‘
The Treasury announced its plans to introduce a new additional duty on beers over 7.5% abv in strength and a reduced rate of duty on beers at a strength of 2.8% abv or below. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/02/10) hm-treasury.gov.uk, 11/30/10 Comment: Interesting that it is now accepted: The price influences the consumption. But reducing the taxes on beer is an invitation for young people to start earlier. Maybe that’s the reason why this tax reform has been accepted by the industry.

The Department of Health has published the new White Paper Healthy lives, healthy people: our strategy for public health in England. It sets out the framework in which a new public health service, named Public Health England, will manage a ring-fenced budget of around £4 billion. The paper proposes Public Health England will take on full responsibilities from 2012 with the ring-fenced funding allocated to local government from April 2013 as Primary Care Trusts are removed. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/02/10) alcoholpolicy.net, 11/30/10

Giant multinational brewer SABMiller – the company that owns Grolsch, Peroni, Miller and Castle – is avoiding an estimated £20m of taxes in Africa and India every year, enough money to educate a quarter-of-a-million African children, according to a new report released today by the international anti-poverty agency ActionAid. The report, ‘Calling Time: Why SABMiller should stop dodging taxes in Africa’ reveals for the first time how the company, the world’s second biggest brewer, uses a complex system of  tax havens to siphon profits out of subsidiaries in developing countries, depriving those governments of significant amounts of tax. Martin Hearson, a tax specialist at ActionAid and the co-author of the report, said: “SABMiller conducts its tax affairs behind a veil of secrecy. The company and its subsidiaries siphon money away from African countries and into tax havens in Europe, where the tax rates are far lower. SABMiller is playing the system to avoid paying its fair share of tax in developing countries.” (Source: Tages-Anzeiger, 30.11.10) actionaid.org Comment: They take it from the poorest. May be that is also our development aid we send to Africa. It comes back to Europe (Netherlands and Switzerland) as their profit. And it is legal!

Greater Manchester will be debating the imposition of a minimum price for alcohol this Friday.
If carried through it would create a bye-law requiring pubs, restaurants, supermarkets and off licences to price alcoholic drinks based on the number of units they contain,at the moment that would see a minimum price of 50p per unit.
Translated into relevant figures, Mancunians drinkers would find themselves paying at least £4.50 for a bottle of wine, £6 for a six-pack of lager and £14 for a 700ml bottle of whisky. … (Source: Google Alcohol News, 11/28/10) insidethem60.journallocal.co.uk, 11/23/10 our Online-Comment: To avoid people travelling outside Manchester to get cheaper alcohol the Prime Minister could start with a national law which brings up prices. He has just put the responsibility to the local communities.
Everybody would have the profit from a lower alcohol consumption by reduced alcohol-related social costs. The meaning of the measure is to convince people to drink less. Also the poor. Than they can pay higher prices as well. Those who drink much less, have the most profit. Better than minimal prices would be to put taxes on the drinks which could be used for covering the social costs, prevention and rehabilitation.