The Treasury has proposed to slash excise duty remission on beer made from sorghum, millet or cassava from 80 percent to 60 percent.
“A change to remission of 60 percent may be proposed and discussed after the pandemic lapses but for now, such a huge change would gravely harm the industry, negatively impact the economy and lead to the resurgence of consumption of illicit brews,” said Mr Gachoka in a statement yesterday.
The tax move, the lobby said, has echoes of 2013, when the Treasury cut the remission from 100 percent to 50 percent, “which resulted in a resurgence of illicit alcohol, with the consumption so high that the State ordered a crackdown on it in 2015”.
It is, therefore, predictable that the linked increase in price arising from a reduction in excise duty remission will result in the resurgence of illicit brews,” said Mr Gachoka.
The committee, he said, has written to Treasury Cabinet secretary protesting the proposed excise tax, which will raise the production costs and fuel illicit brews use.
