Bottled water companies have been lamenting about the excise duty they have had to pay for years – and it got even worse after the budget was read last week, increasing excise duty from 2.05 to 6 shillings excise tax per litre. This is likely to increase the price of water by 3 shillings per bottle. But at least they dodged a bullet with the postponed increased in the price of plastic (Those small plastic bottles you use and throw away cost about 10 shillings each, including plastic labels)
Still it is an odd paradox of life that a litre of water [which anyone can make at home] could (until recently) cost more than litre of petrol [imported from thousands of miles away and undergoes several complex processes].
Banks
What is the reason for taxing water?
It doesn’t make sense to me. When you consider the high cases are water borne diseases and importance of clean water for health you would think the government would subsidize water!!
I agree with you bankelele. This water business has been a rip off for years. Many companies will claim theirs to be mineral and packed at source while we all know that all they do is sterilize the water, package it in fancy bottles and sell to us at a premium. It is the only product I know of whose content has costed the manufacturer less than the packaging cost. Coke Cola water business was kicked out of UK some times back. Among certain circles, they were accussed of taking a natural resource and selling it to the citizens at premium margins; isn’t this the same thing they do with Dasani here. Subsidizing such companies is denying ourselves some tax. The government should just ensure that local authorities provide “good” water all the time.
This 24th June article from the Daily Telegraph headlined Waters Don’t Spring Eternal sheds some light into the water industry
alexcia: I think bottled water is considered a luxury by the government, bought only by a minority of urbanites & travelers who should be able to afford tax
J K: DYK a concerned water expert wrote about that last month? The packaging definetly costs more than the water esp at the lower end of the chain where dubious production techniques are applied. Some water companies have real complaints about the authenticity of dasani water here too
Mitzy: Thanks for the link