'Pointless' Spirits Duty Stamps abolished thanks to BDA campaign

The British Distillers Alliance (BDA) and the spirits industry are celebrating the Budget policy decision to abolish the spirits duty stamps scheme, following a 5 year long campaign by BDA founder, Alan Powell.

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The British Distillers Alliance (of which The Gin Guide is a proud Member and supporter) is celebrating the Budget policy decision to abolish the spirits duty stamps scheme.
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Alan Powell, founder and co-ordinator of the BDA said, “The announcement is excellent news for the entire spirits sector and follows our intense campaigning for this measure. In large part, our members were concerned by the lack of clarity in law about duty-stamped empty bottles being re-filled. Members have been stymied by the opacity of law and severe risk for breach of the regulations”.

Powell adds, “The duty stamps regime introduced in 2006 was purportedly to tackle spirits duty fraud but was always controversial since there was no fraud of any significance. In our campaign started in 2019, we put it to HMRC and ministers that in the early part of this century senior civil servants had totally miscalculated spirits duty losses due to fraud by £600 million per annum. Even after recognition that the spirits tax lost after 1998 was negligible, HMRC ploughed on with dystopian measures that placed immense and pointless burdens upon the legitimate trade.”  

Pal Gleed, Director General The Gin Guild said: “I’d like to thank Alan for his tireless campaigning on behalf of distillers on this thorny issue - this marks one of the few positives for the distilling industry in recent times.” This was echoed by Andrew Nelstrop, CEO of the English Whisky company, who said “Alan Powell’s work on behalf of BDA members and the industry at large is relentless in the mission to tidy up and modernise the HMRC rules; this latest announcement from HMRC shows all that hard work can pay off.”  

Cathy Katon, Managing Director of Brighton Gin said, "We are delighted that Alan Powell's ceaseless campaigning has again borne fruit - as a small producer doing every element of production by hand, the abolition of the duty stamp scheme will improve our productivity and simplify our operations.” Andrew Parson of the Sky Wave Distilling Company adds, “We are delighted that common sense finally prevails. This totally unnecessary scheme, fabricated by HMRC, adds nothing but cost and complicity to an already besieged industry. Its abolition is entirely appropriate.”

Zane Chiswell-Rivas, founder of Essex Spirits Company sums up by saying, “It’s a double win for both SME producers and also sustainability in general. At a difficult financial time, the duty stamp regime was creating huge confusion for producers and even worse, hampering innovation within packaging and sustainability.”