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$12 schooners: Beer prices to rise today

Aussies will pay more for a beer from today, following another tax hike.

Tamika Seeto
·Finance Reporter
·2-min read
Australian money notes. Drinking beers. Beer tax.
Aussies will pay more for a beer from today, following a tax hike. (Source: Getty)

If you want to grab a pint down at the pub, it’s going to cost you more from today. And one industry expert has warned the price of a schooner could surge past $12.

The Australian Taxation Office has today raised the beer excise by 3.7 per cent, which applies to both draught and packaged beer.

It comes on top of last August’s increase of 4 per cent, meaning taxes have jumped almost 8 per cent over the past six months.

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The tax increases, which are tied to inflation, mean beer drinkers will be paying an extra $1.50 per slab, 9 cents per pint and almost 5 cents per schooner compared to July last year.

Brewers Association of Australia CEO John Preston said Australia now had some of the highest beer taxes in the world.

“Australia now has the fourth-highest beer tax in the world and, in October this year, we will overtake Japan and go up to the third-highest,” Preston told Yahoo Finance.

“Other countries are reducing their beer tax. Japan, the US and the UK have recently reduced their beer taxes to support their hospitality sector.”

The Brewers Association is calling on the federal government to consider a 50 per cent reduction on the draught beer tax (for beer sold over the counter at pubs), as well as a freeze on the bottled beer tax (for beer bought at bottle shops).

“If these beer tax increases aren’t stopped, we can easily see the average schooner surging past $12 in the next six months or year. You’re already seeing $15 a pint in some pubs,” Preston said.

“These tax increases just drive prices up at a time when pubs and clubs are trying to rebuild.”

The increase comes as inflation surges, with the Consumer Price Index rising 7.8 per cent over the year to December.

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