• Earlier today Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, delivered his 2023 Budget Speech.
• Unsurprisingly, sin tax has increased, with prices rising across the board for the rest of the year.
• Spirits and cigarettes in particular were hardest hit by the increases.

The 2023 Budget Speech was delivered earlier today by Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, and while much of the attention focused on incentives related to solar panels, as well as plans to address the current energy crisis, the usual bevy of increases for sin tax-related products was unpacked.

To that end there were increases across the board, with beer, wine, spirits, cigarettes, and cigars all seeing rises in price for the rest of the year.

“Government proposes an increase in the excise duties on alcohol and tobacco of 4.9
per cent, in line with expected inflation,” the minister’s budget speech explained.

With that in mind, here is how much extra you’ll be paying for the above listed products locally in 2023:

• A 340 millilitre can of beer increases by 10 cents,
• A 750 millilitre bottle of wine increases by 18 cents,
• A 750 millilitre bottle of spirits increases by R3.90,
• A 23 gram cigar increases by R5.47,
• A pack of 20 cigarettes increases by 98 cents.

As you can see, spirits, cigarettes, and cigars are the hardest hit, with the latter two products getting increased attention from government. This particularly when it comes to stopping illicit trade, which looks to be a priority for government.

“On illicit trade, over the past three years, SARS has taken several steps to enhance its effectiveness in combating illicit trade, particularly in tobacco,” highlighted Godogwana.

“To this end, SARS has completed 2 316 seizures of cigarettes & tobacco products to the value of R598.8 million. An additional R18 billion worth of schedules and assessments have been raised, targeting syndicated tobacco-related crimes,” he added.

You can read the 2023 Budget Speech in full below.

[Image – Photo by Stanislav Ivanitskiy on Unsplash]