As if it’s not expensive enough to buy drinks at pubs and night clubs in Lebanon, the government is apparently planning to impose an additional 500% tax on alcohol. According to this MTV report:
– The tax on 1 liter of wine and champagne will increase from 200 LL to 1000 LL.
– The tax on 1 liter of beer will increase from 60 LL to 300 LL.
– The tax on 1 liter of Vodka and Whiskey will from 400 LL to 2000 LL.
I’m not really sure who came up with that plan, but this is a suicidal decision especially when the tourism sector is suffering big time. If anything, this decision will make way for more smuggled alcohol and boost the production of bad alcohol.
500%? This is ridiculous! Why don’t they increase taxes on cigarettes and Arguile?
Look man, high alcohol prices in pubs were never due to taxes on alcohol. In all cases, very few pubs i know are really honest about the content of their bottles – you can buy 3 liters of jelzin vodka in a bag from famous supermarkets for 4$ a pop. In my humble opinion the benefits of making it harder for young people to buy alcohol outweighs any economic consideration, but don’t worry consumption is not really going to be affected – this new increase in taxes doesn’t make people any less stupid.
I really don’t know where to start!!!
What is ridiculous is the MTV report in the first place, and even more ridiculous the blog & title that I just read!
1- This is no where near a 500% tax on alcohol. There is a huge difference between a 500% tax and increase of the existing tax by 500%… Maybe you people need to learn your maths once again
2- I can’t really thank MTV (or you) enough for posting those screenshots of the actual tax… a 1000LBP tax per liter of wine, meaning a 750LBP per bottle of wine (maybe you don’t know that the bottle is 750mL)… Is that really an increase of “ALCOHOL PRICE” by 5 times????? Is that really going to cause you a problem when buying alcohol?? Is that really what eventually will impact the consumer pocket??
3- Oh and the “nuclear” argument of — this will make way for more smuggled alcohol and boost the production of bad alcohol… Let me tell you something both you and the gentleman in the video.. alcohol smuggling and production is powered by greed not by tax! It was there before the tax increase and it will continue after the tax increase. Only an insane would think that the solution would be not to increase taxes… Go invest in how this shit can be controlled in the 1st place, that’ll be something useful to do
Stop this bullshit…
Very true reasoning. A 1000 ll tax on a 50,000 champagne bottle is a minimum instead of 200ll. 200 LL tax is ridiculous.. then again we need to support local businesses instead of importing. Yaret they actually have a real tax on alcohol to oblige people to consume locally…
Oh and I know for sure that you will not post the comment on the page, but so what, as long as you read it!
Why wouldn’t I post it?
I am not really sure why you’re getting so defensive on a tax set by a government that knows all about greed and nothing about giving back to the people anything.
As I said, even a 0.1% tax increase shouldn’t be tolerated as long as we are not getting anything in return and this 500% may be irrelevant to normal customers but it could harm businesses.