One in 10 jobs in the pub and beer industry will be lost over the next five years if the tax increases go ahead in the next Budget, according to new a report.
The study by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) warned that 60,000 jobs in the sector would be affected as it described the current climate as "the toughest trading conditions in living memory".
The report entitled "People, Pubs and Parliament: A new deal for Britain's beer and pub sector" called on the Chancellor to rethink plans set out 12 months ago to impose a "punitive" tax escalator for the next four years.
It highlighted that proposals in the 2008 Budget to increase duty rates by 2% above the rate of inflation each year from 2009 to 2011 were in order to ensure that alcohol duties kept pace with rising incomes, but that average earnings were now falling.
David Long, the BBPA's interim chief executive, said: "This report sets out clearly the exceptional pressures the beer and pub industry is facing at this time.
"Pubs are closing at a record rate and one in ten of the 600,000 jobs in the sector are under threat as a result of the worst trading conditions anyone can remember.
"This dire situation is driven by many factors, but the government is adding to the misery through punitive increases in tax and regulation.
"Last year, the Chancellor increased beer tax by 18% and also set out plans to impose a duty escalator of above-inflation taxes in each of the next four years. His justification was that duty should rise in line with rising incomes.
"Twelve months on from the last Budget the economic situation has changed radically. While average earnings were rising by almost five per cent in March last year, today they are actually falling. The Chancellor must now think again.
"Pubs play a vital economic and social role in all parts of the UK, and yet the industry was excluded from the VAT cut in November, is being burdened by more and more regulation, and now faces further tax increases in the Budget. The result will be to write off thousands more pubs and tens of thousands more jobs."
