By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 7 October 2011
Scottish ministers have set out their case for alcohol excise duty to be devolved, arguing that it would give Holyrood more money to meet the costs of excess alcohol consumption in Scotland.
The call to Westminster is the last of the Scottish National Party government’s demands for extra powers to be devolved under the Scotland Bill.
It wants the Scottish budget to be reduced by an amount equivalent to Scotland’s per capita share of excise duties, in return for Scotland collecting the actual duties. This appears to set aside previous SNP calls for Holyrood to be able to vary duty rates.
In a paper issued yesterday, ministers estimate that devolution of the duty would have brought in £816m in 2009/10. This compares with the £777m actually returned to Scotland on the current basis of a per capita share of the duties.
The paper puts the annual bill to the Scottish economy for the consequences of drinking at £3.56bn, including £270m in health care costs, £230m for social care and £730m in drink-related crime.
‘The costs of excess alcohol consumption in Scotland are already devolved,’ said enterprise minister Fergus Ewing. ‘It is only logical that, as we are already meeting the costs of alcohol, we should have control over the revenue benefits it brings. Duties paid in Scotland should stay in Scotland.’
Figures published by the Scottish Executive in 2009 showed that Scotland had the eighth highest alcohol-consumption in the world. According to industry sales, Scots annually consume 12.2 litres of pure alcohol per adult, compared to 10.3 litres per adult in England and Wales.
But the proposal was derided by former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie, who called it ‘a kind of drinks supplement to the Barnett Formula’.
McLetchie said: ‘Perversely, this means that the more alcohol that is consumed in Scotland, the more money it will bring in. Far from tackling the booze culture, the SNP wants to benefit from it.’
Ewing described the paper as the ‘final piece in the jigsaw’ of the Scottish government’s demands for devolved powers additional to those currently proposed by the Scotland Bill. Other items on the shopping list sent to Westminster by First Minister Alex Salmond are increased borrowing powers for Scotland, devolved corporation tax, devolution of broadcasting, devolution of the Crown Estate and a stronger Scottish voice in the European Union.
Ewing said: ‘This would not only give the Scottish Parliament greater financial responsibility but would also provide the Scottish Government with a stable tax base to help mitigate the flawed income tax proposals contained in the Scotland Bill.’
