The Chancellor has confirmed predictions of an increase in tax on alcohol in his 2008 Budget, with a 4p rise in duties on a pint of beer.
Alistair Darling also said that tax on cider would go up by 3p a litre, wine by 14p a bottle and spirits by 55p a bottle from midnight on Sunday.
Alcohol duty will then go up by 2% above inflation after this year for the next four years.
David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives, attacked the move as failing to target binge drinkers at the cost of ordinary responsible drinkers.
The news came as Darling cut his growth target for this year by 0.25 percentage points to between 1.75% to 2.25% from up to 2.5% forecast last October.
The UK economy grew by 3% in 2007.
Growth for 2009 was forecast at 2.25% to 2.75%, rising to between 2.5% and 3% in 2010.
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) responded to the tax hikes on beer saying that beer drinkers, pubs and the Treasury would suffer, while binge drinkers and supermarkets would be the only ones who benefited from the increase.
“Rob Hayward, chief executive of the BBPA, said: “The millions of people who enjoy beer have just been hit by a £50.5m a month tax raid on their family budgets.
“By aiming a tax hike at beer, the Chancellor is shooting himself in the foot. Treasury revenues will continue to fall, pubs will continue to close and beer sales sink further.
“Every single day, the Treasury is losing over £1m in beer taxes and four pubs are closing. People are now drinking 1 million fewer pints a day compared with last year. That trend will continue. It’s a decision doomed to failure – bad for taxpayers, beer, pubs and bad for the Treasury as well.
“The government is punishing all beer drinkers rather than tackling the minority of drunken hooligans. But government tax policy is fuelling Britain’s binge drink problem by driving people away from beer, out of the pub into the arms of the deep discounting supermarkets. They don’t pay beer duty and don’t allow brewers to pass it on, so their rock bottom prices will remain unaffected by this tax hike.”
