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Excise Duties: Beer

Volume 505: debated on Tuesday 2 February 2010

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of beer sold in the UK without the payment of value added tax and excise duty; (314166)

(2) what estimate he has made of the amount of revenue lost to the Exchequer through the non-payment of value added tax and excise duty on beer in each year from 2001.

The Department has an internal estimate for revenue losses due to fraud in beer. For 2006-07 estimated losses from beer give a range of between £270 million and £490 million in respect of duty and £120 million to £220 million in respect of VAT. This corresponds to a market share of between 7 and 12 per cent. No estimate currently exists for any other financial year. The methodology is still under development and therefore this estimate may be revised.