Excellent: an excise tax would put domestic winemakers at a disadvantage

On Tuesday, at a meeting with winemakers in Velké Bílovice in the Břeclav region, the minister said that Stanjur must take into account the fact that some coalition MPs and senators also reject the plan. He recalled that the advisory committee that dealt with the plan did not find agreement. Also because the wine-growing countries of Europe do not have such a tax, and its introduction in our country would introduce an exception into the European market environment, affecting mainly domestic winemakers.

“When the plan appeared last year, it did not go through. It showed how imperfectly prepared he was. If other measures of the government’s National Economic Council are just as imperfect, then nothing will surprise me,” said South Moravian Governor Jan Grolich.

According to Martin Chlad, president of the Winemakers’ Union of the Czech Republic, 96 percent of winemakers unequivocally reject the tax. They dwell on the consumption tax rate. According to Chlad, a liter of rum is taxed at 129 crowns for alcohol, the Ministry of Finance wants to tax 23.40 crowns for a liter of wine, but the tax for beer is only 3.2 crowns. Higher alcohol content means higher tax.

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Excellent said that the Ministry of Finance gave four tax proposals, 23.40 crowns per liter and three others, reduced by twenty-five, fifty and seventy-five percent. “We’re in a situation where we don’t know what the tax will be, it’s just a matter of implementing one,” says Grolich.

537 million people in Europe buy wine without excise duty. Czechs would be an exception. “Ultimately, the consumer would pay that tax. But our wines would not be competitive,” argues Chlad. Mendel University associate professor Pavel Žufan said that last year domestic wines made up twenty-eight percent of the volume sold, but in terms of price it was over fifty percent. Taxing them would open the price gap and crowd out domestic production.

Consumption tax would also be paid on wine imported from abroad, STAN MP Hana Naiclerová pointed out. Czech winemakers would not be at a disadvantage. Excise tax is not introduced in Europe in countries that are considered wine-growing, but it is paid in other countries.

Minister Excellent rejects the introduction of the tax. “If we had an excise tax, we would be the only producer country in Europe. This is an argument that is relevant to me,” he said. Refusals were strengthened by the consequences of frost. “After the April frosts, which also caused damage to winegrowers, I consider the tax debate to be a gamble with the entire sector,” reminded the minister.

According to him, nights with temperatures of up to seven degrees below zero mean that the fruit harvest will be about twenty percent of the average this year. “That was extreme at the level of a natural disaster,” said Výborný. The winemakers declare that they are not asking for help, they just want to get rid of tax worries. But the minister assumes that wineries in the most affected regions in the Czech Republic will need help.

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