Raising alcohol prices increases criminality
The anti-alcohol lobby is at it again. Not satisfied with securing above-inflation duty increases, they now want minimum pricing.
Poorer drinkers would have a simple response: turn to smuggled booze.
That is what has increasingly been happening for many years now. I was in charge of alcohol duties at the Treasury in the mid ’90s and we were cautious about raising duties too fast for that reason.
Don’t imagine these smugglers are merry chaps in white vans freeloading a bit of booze on a channel ferry awayday. They are now large, organised and often violent criminal gangs.
Raising duties or prices will do little to tackle the problem of drinking. It has already driven people from pubs into drinking at home – potentially far more damaging. It has also encouraged people to load up on booze before they go out. Higher duties don’t even raise as much as expected as smuggling increases.
We for a long time have had some of the highest drinks prices in the developed world – and some of the worst drink problems. Seems to me, price is not the issue.
