When the budget gets released each year, two frustrations are guaranteed: increased taxes are going to make it more expensive for me to drink, and for my car to drink. It’s something many of us lament and for the smokers, it gets even worse.
Imagine the surprise when the South African Alcohol Policy Alliance took to the streets to demand an increase in alcohol taxes. It could only be marginally overshadowed by the surprise that there exists an organisation called the South African Alcohol Policy Alliance.
The core of their message seems reasonable and well-intended; alcohol abuse has many social ills that stem from it and taxing it harder will prevent its abuse. Seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately not.
Remember pineapple beer?
You don’t even need to go as far back as the prohibition era. Remember when we had lockdown and a jacked-up demand for pineapples puzzled shopkeepers? Have you seen the number of illicit cigarettes on the market because the real ones are just priced out of many budgets? It’s not like making the stuff people want more expensive stops them from abusing it. Cars are pretty expensive and people make a good habit of crashing those.
One must appreciate the desperation though. There are many communities that suffer desperately from alcohol related issues and making drinking more expensive seems to be a knee-jerk answer which may have even worse effects.
ALSO READ: Here’s how much a bottle of alcohol could cost after next week’s budget speech
If for example, your budget could stretch for one night of drinking a week, and suddenly that drops to a month – there’s no chance you’re going to take it easy one that night if you’re a seasoned drinker.
It’s true, even if just from an anecdotal perspective, that many breadwinners spend excessive amounts of disposable income drinking. Perhaps the placard claiming that beer is cheaper than bread would be ill-advised in line with that but the other complaints ring true in several communities; drunk people come home and beat their spouses, shebeens operate 24/7 and some outlets are located precariously close to schools.
Alcohol: Poor decisions and higher prices
Beyond that, it’s ridiculously easy to get alcohol as a minor and so much of these issues are concentrated in poorer communities.
That’s exactly the issue; people are already poor and making poor decisions on spending on alcohol. It’s not like making the stuff more expensive is going to stop them. If it did, it’s more likely that they’ll find a different (likely illicit) source. Just look at what happened to smokers.
Decreasing alcohol consumption is a noble cause. Doing it by making alcohol more expensive doesn’t strike as an effective way of doing so and could have even worse effects.
Better enforcement needed
Unfortunately, we’re pretty far down the alcohol abuse road and fixing it isn’t a simple matter of taxation. You know how I can say that with such certainty? How many fewer plastic bags are in landfills since cashiers were mandated to greet us with the South African minimalist poetry of plastic?
Easy for me to say all this not having to live in a community riddled with alcohol abuse but it does remove the emotive element from the appeal. The way to fight it is better enforcement. Liquor authorities need to do more cracking down. Police need to be more visible and shebeens must be held to account for continuously serving drunk people more drink.
ALSO READ: Sin tax raises demand for illicit alcohol
It’s a crime to sell liquor to a drunk person and to allow them to remain on your premises. That should be something quite easy to enforce and that sort of thing may go a long way in preventing several social ills. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as upping tax and for the exhaustion of the community, you can understand why they’d want a path with less resistance.
If the path of least resistance doesn’t lead anywhere though, you may find yourself having to walk back and fight a bigger monster.
About the Author
