In the parliament, a government bill on increasing excise taxes on alcohol products by 9% is registered. The Cabinet of Ministers justifies this necessity by inflation processes, but economists do not agree with the government’s initiative, Economic Expert of the Public Security Fund Yuri Gavrilechko commented to UNN.
"The excise tax on alcohol is not something that should not be increased, they should be reduced once 7-8. The increase of excise tax will lead to an increase in counterfeit, and, accordingly, to an increase in the illegal alcohol market, which is already significant. It will also lead to an increase in the number of poisonings by low-quality alcohol, and, accordingly, the demand for drugs will increase", the expert believes.
In Gavrilechko's opinion, the Cabinet "just really wants money", and increasing taxes is the only thing that it can offer for filling the budget.
"It looks like an attempt to fish by draining the lake," he concluded.
As UNN wrote, because of the discrepancy between the level of the tax burden on the producer and the Ukrainian consumer capabilities, over the past year and a half the volume of legal vodka production has already fallen by more than 20%.
