Distillers' insights invited into excise reforms

Distillers have welcomed the invitation from the Australian Government for industry to contribute idea on how to streamline excise for beer and spirits.

Since the Government’s Deregulation Taskforce’s participated in initial consultations with more than 40 businesses and industry leaders to gain a ‘factory floor’ perspective of their day-to-day operations, they have identified common concerns and time consuming and complicated regulatory requirements.

Attention now turns to considering potential opportunities to improve the excise system, through both administrative and legislative reforms.

There are outlined in the taskforce’s consultation paper, Streamlining excise administration for fuel and alcohol, released jointly by Ministers Sukkar, Morton and Wood who form the taskforce.

Spirits and Cocktails Australia CEO Greg Holland said, “This is an important opportunity for distillers of all sizes in Australia to help overhaul a regulatory system that has been criticised by numerous government and independent reviews as complicated and unfair.”

The review is the opportunity to “help make Australia’s out-of-date excise system better”.

Industry submissions are invited and close on 31 August 2021.

This work is aimed at cutting regulatory overheads for business, supporting new investments in the beverage manufacturing sector. It will also enable the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Border Force (ABF) to focus on higher-value and higher-risk enforcement activities.

The reforms to excise include the government's tripling of the excise refund cap for small brewers and distillers from $100,000 to $350,000 per year and trialling alternatives with the blockchain pilot program. However, the news comes on the back of a 1.7 per cent excise hike announced by the ATO earlier this week and described by the SCA as ‘a kick in the guts to businesses already struggling with the impact of COVID lockdowns’.