Newspaper:BBC News
Date of publication: February 27th, 2009
The Government of Finland has reported that in 2009 the state tax on alcohol sales will be increased by an additional ten percent. The rationale behind this move is a bid by the government to discourage heavy drinking, which is continuing to be a major social problem for Finns. This same measure would like to be imitated by Scotland, Wales and England.
In Finland, the last state tax increase on alcohol was in September 2007. This tax hike was a direct response to prior decrease in the alcohol tax which resulted in cheap booze pushing alcoholism up to the second leading cause of death in Finland.
In 2005, the Finnish government reduced its tax on alcohol by a whole 40 percent in an attempt to discourage heavy consumptin on booze cruise ferries tio Estonia and Russia, where alcohol is tax free, and thus cheap. According to the Health Ministry, the result of that tax slash was a sharp increase in binge drinking within Finland itself.
The government believes the alcohol tax increase in 2007 was not enough to curb Finland's drinking problem, so the Finance Ministry has announced tha in January 2009 the average retail prices on beer, wine and spirits will go up by around 4.5 percent.
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