Alcoholic drinks tax readjusted

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Special consumption tax on spirits such as wine, whisky and vodka is lowered.

While the special consumption tax (SCT) on alcoholic beverages such as wine, whiskey, gin and vodka was lowered, the Cabinet has raised the SCT on Turkey’s national drink, rakı, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

The price adjustment comes as part of taxation negotiations with the European Union that envisage gradually eliminating tax rate differences on alcoholic spirits between the parties by 2018.

“The re-adjustment of tax rates deepens our worries that foreign spirits will take the place of the national alcoholic beverage, rakı,” the Traditional Alcoholic Beverages Producers Association (GİSDER) said yesterday in a written statement. The minimum lump-sum tax collected on one liter of rakı was increased from 63.48 to 66 Turkish Liras, while it was decreased from 105.8 to 87.12 liras on whiskey, the statement said.

“Turkish rakı is a local alcoholic beverage that is integrated with our geographic region, providing high added value to local raw materials, and agricultural products, while being locally produced rather than imported,” Egemen Demirtaş, GİSDER’s vice president said. Annual rakı consumption in Turkey is about 40 million liters, according to a report by IBS, a research company, Demirtaş said. Some 280,000 tons of grapes are utilized in rakı production each year, and about 2,000 people are directly employed in the sector, he added.