Trade groups slam Government spirit plan

Measures designed to stamp out bootlegged spirits are unlikely to be effective and will cost the drinks industry hundreds of millions of pounds to introduce, claim trade bodies.

The Treasury wants to introduce "strip stamps", which prove that duty has been paid, onto all spirits sold in the UK. The Government claims that the illicit trade in spirits costs UK taxpayers £450m a year in unpaid duty.

Delegates from the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) and the Gin and Vodka Association (GVA) met with Treasury ministers and officials this month to discuss the plans.

The trade claims that strip stamps have only proven effective in the very short term in other countries, as counterfeiters quickly learn to duplicate them.

The SWA said that in Poland 80 per cent of whisky trade is contraband despite the use of strip stamps.

The GVA claims new customs procedures have already had an impact on the illicit spirits trade in recent months. Edwin Atkinson, director general, said: "We want to be reassured that the large cost to legitimate companies will be matched by the benefit to industry and to the Chancellor."

The GVA believes that closer co-operation between the spirits trade and the Government can offer greater consumer protection, without the expense of source tagging. Measures such as security tagging of bottles are already being introduced.

Mr Atkinson said: "There are literally hundreds of brands of gin and vodka, many of them imported. The complexity of introducing this proposal is far greater than was originally thought. We are concerned that some small UK companies will be very severely hit."

In the USA the use of strip stamps has been ended by the federal government.