The government in Bucharest approved, on Wednesday, by emergency ordinance, a new calendar for the gradual increase in the level of excise duties on beer, for the period 2025-2026, as well as the exemption from the provisions regarding the updating of the level of excise duties with the increase in consumer prices (taking into account the calendar for the gradual increase in the level of excise duty, level calculated based on the annual average rate of inflation from the year 2024).
According to a press release from the Executive, thus, for the year 2025, the excise duty on beer was set at a level of 4.82 lei/hl/1 degree Plato, and in 2026, its level will be 5.06 lei/hl/ 1 degree Plato.
For this year, the excise duty level for beer was set at 4.62 lei/hl/1 degree Plato. At the same time, the level of excise duty on beer produced by independent producers whose annual production does not exceed 200,000 hl will be 2.65 lei/hl/1 grade Plato, in 2025, respectively 2.78 lei/hl/1 grade Plato in the year 2026.
“The measure is necessary considering the demands of the business environment in the beer industry regarding the introduction of a calendar for the gradual increase in the level of excise duty and ensuring fiscal predictability for these economic operators”, the press release states.
Also, the normative act introduces the obligation of advance payment in the case of warehouses that have been authorized since January 1, 2024, during the first 36 months of validity of the authorization.
“The measure is necessary in order to avoid the risks of non-compliance with the fiscal obligations of the newly established authorized economic operators with excisable products, as well as to prevent the evasion of the legal provisions regarding the payment of excise duties to the state budget and making some correlations as a result of the introduction of the new provisions. Considering the legislative changes brought by Law no. 85/2018 and, respectively, GEO no. 37/2024, which aims at the conditions for establishing and maintaining a minimum level of crude oil and/or petroleum product stocks, in order to guarantee security of supply, in the event of major supply malfunctions, special emergency situations or situations of local crisis, as well as the acquisition of the quality of central storage entity in Romania by the National Administration of State Reserves and Special Problems, the Fiscal Code is completed. According to the new provision, the places related to the state reserve and the mobilization reserve, the places where the emergency stocks/specific stocks are established and maintained, as well as the storage capacities intended for the central storage entity are assimilated to fiscal storage warehouses”, it is said in communicated.