Alcohol tax is another blunder for Montoro

A string of tax hikes has yielded little result. Montoro's experiments, as expected, have been counterproductive. The lottery tax failed, because it did not bring in as much revenue as the Finance Ministry hoped when people stopped buying as many lottery tickets. And the same happened when alcohol taxes were jacked up by 10% in 2013.

The Tax Agency raised 745 million in taxes on alcohol in 2013 and wanted to raise 815 million last year after raising the tax. But it only raised 715 million, a slight drop from 2012. If the Finance Ministry would simply talk to the hotel and restaurant industries, it would realize that raising taxes on booze is guaranteed to cut consumption.