After Estonia raised its alcohol excise tax rates considerably in 2017, Estonian daily Postimees has estimated that the target of the money the alcohol excise tax would bring into state coffers could have been missed by at least EUR 40 million.
Estonian daily Postimees compared the Estonian tax inspectorate’s calculations for the past 11 months to respective income in the previous years and predicted that the real income for the year 2017 will be closer to the EUR 222 million result of 2015 than to the EUR 251 million result in 2016 before the last year’s increase in alcohol excise rate.
The shortfall is expected to exceed the altered summer forecast of the Estonian Finance Ministry; however, the official calculations will be released in February.
Initially, in the state budget of 2017, the ministry had been planned that proceeds from the alcohol excise tax would bring EUR 276.4 million, but last summer, it cut the forecast to EUR 237.5 million.
BNN reported previously that the excise duty rate on alcohol in the Baltic country was raised from February 2017 from 8.30 cents to 9.13 cents per percent alcohol by volume (ABV) for beer, followed by an increase to 15.52 cents last July.
For wine and fermented beverages with an alcohol content of up to 6 percent ABV, the duty was raised from 48.55 cents to 53.41 cents per litre in February and was increased further to 77.44 cents in July.