SAB CEO calls for greater excise tax increase certainty to protect the beer industry

Beer maker South African Breweries (SAB) CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac has called on government to create greater certainty around excise tax increases going forward, stating that yearly increases that surpass inflation undermine the beer industry’s growth. "We need, as an industry, strong policy certainty around excise tax. We know that the government is under pressure from a budgetary perspective. For ten years, we’ve seen massively inflated excise tax increases when compared with inflation. That’s against policy. And that really hurts the industry," Rivett-Carnac said on September 6 at the SAB State of the Beer Economy event at the company’s Alrode brewery in Alberton.