{"id":866798,"date":"2026-07-20T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=866798"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:33:13","slug":"battle-over-higher-alcohol-taxes-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/866798\/battle-over-higher-alcohol-taxes-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle over higher alcohol taxes in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Treasury has been urged to adopt an inflation-linked alcohol excise framework, following large increases in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Treasury recently held a stakeholder consultation on South Africa’s future alcohol excise policy framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excise taxes are seen as a relatively easy-to-implement form of revenue growth, with the health and societal dangers of alcohol meaning that the government can easily call for higher “sin taxes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sin taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, and vapes are easy to justify, the controversy surrounding the proposed 2 percentage-point increase in VAT in 2025 shows that other tax increases are not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 budget, excise taxes on alcohol were raised by 3.4%. This was a relatively low amount compared to the 6.75% seen in the 2025 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As excise taxes tend to be higher than inflation, South African Breweries (SAB) has called on the National Treasury to adopt a new alcohol excise framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAB argued that the inflation-linked increase would protect government revenue, while also providing businesses and consumers with the certainty needed to invest, grow and create jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAB noted that it is one of the largest manufacturers and taxpayers in South Africa, with brands such as Castle Lager, Carling Black Label, Hansa Pilsener, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAB said that using inflation-linked excise taxes would preserve the real value of government, while providing businesses, investors and consumers with predictability<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sustainable economic growth requires a stable and predictable policy environment,” said Zoleka Lisa, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at SAB. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Linking annual excise adjustments to inflation is a fair and predictable approach that protects government revenue while giving businesses the confidence to invest, create jobs and plan for the future.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support jobs <\/h2>\n\n\n
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SAB said that a policy resulting in recurring above-inflation excise increases would place pressure on consumers, reduce spending power and hurt the beer value chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It argued that this would impact farmers, suppliers, retailers, hospitality businesses and the thousands of jobs they support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also highlighted the rise of the illicit alcohol trade, with massive price gaps between legal and illicit products that can further grow the illicit market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It argued that a shift to the illicit market would undermine tax compliance, reduce government revenue and place additional pressure on legitimate businesses that follow the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAB argued that a predictable inflation-linked approach would provide a balanced solution by maintaining the real value of excise revenue without introducing excessive tax escalation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that such certainty would support long-term planning, boost investment and increase confidence across the wider beer economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that many international markets have adopted inflation-linked excise adjustment mechanisms that provide policy certainty while preserving the real value of government revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa has an opportunity to implement an excise system that balances revenue collection with economic growth,” added Lisa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A predictable framework aligned to inflation can support consumers, businesses and government
alike, while helping to create the certainty needed for investment and sustainable growth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While SAB will hope for inflation-linked increases, consumers and businesses should still expect a significant increase in the tax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation in South Africa has skyrocketed from around 3% at the start of the year to 4.5% amid rising fuel prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the 2027 budget had an inflation-linked increase, it would likely be higher than the 3.4% seen in the 2026 budget. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African Breweries has called on National Treasury to adopt an inflation-linked alcohol excise framework<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":847969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2079136993888395472","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[3796,14901],"class_list":["post-866798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-national-treasury","tag-south-african-breweries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866798"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866815,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866798\/revisions\/866815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}