MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. The Ministry of Finance believes that the labeling of beer tax stamps would increase the cost of production, and this will push customers to the consumption of strong alcohol. On Monday the newspaper “Izvestia”, citing a letter to Deputy Minister Ilya Trunina to the state Duma.
“The cost of the beer producers for the purchase of machines for marking on products, software, changing business operations and integration of information systems will lead to higher cost and significant increase of product cost – to the letter of the Deputy Minister, reviewed the publication. – Which in turn can lead to a shift of demand towards alcoholic beverages. The growth of prices and costs could lead to the closure of small and medium enterprises”. He also noted that now the state authorities have a sufficient set of tools for the effective control of production and turnover of beer production.
In the office of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin, who oversees the alcohol industry, “Izvestiya” reported that the formation position in this regard will be to rely on the opinion of the Ministry of Finance.
Under current law, the newspaper, the main process equipment for the production of beer and beer drinks must be equipped with automatic gages and accounting of finished goods. This equipment must also have a means of fixing and information transfer about production volume and turnover of products in the Unified state automated information system.
Earlier Trunin said that the beer should be labelled, by analogy with furs and medicines.
