Small beer tax

The Economist sez Russia is looking at plans to quadruple beer excise taxes by 2012. The tax is to allegedly tackle alcoholism, which is so rife it is almost a prerequisite for Russian citizenship. The slight hiccup? The tax increase applies only to beer, not vodka:

The average Russian already drinks 30 litres of hard liquor a year, six times the amount in the EU, while imbibing a modest 77 litres of beer, a little less than a typical European. Pushing up beer prices is far more likely to encourage drinkers to swallow even more vodka or dodgy but cheap home-made spirits than to convince them to give up booze altogether.

Budem zdorovy!