Yes, the issue of increasing the minimum retail prices for strong alcohol is almost resolved: they will be raised from January 1.
Photo: María LENZ. Go to Photobank KP
It seems that Russians will continue to celebrate the new year 2025 with new alcohol prices. The Ministry of Finance believes that from January 1, the minimum retail prices (MRP) for strong alcoholic beverages should increase. The corresponding draft order was published on the federal portal of regulatory legal acts. A bottle of vodka with a volume of 0.5 liters will increase in price by 50 rubles (from the current 299 to 349 rubles), brandy of the same volume will increase by 69 rubles (from 403 to 472 rubles), and cognac will immediately increase. for 95 rubles (from 556 to 651 rubles) . But why was this done and how will it affect the alcohol market?
“Yes, the issue of increasing the minimum retail prices for strong alcohol has practically been resolved: they will be raised from January 1,” Maxim Chernigovsky, general director of the non-profit association “Club of Professionals of Alcohol,” told KP. alcohol market. .
The minimum retail price is the amount below which a bottle of legal alcohol simply cannot cost if it is made from high-quality raw materials and all taxes have been paid. This figure will increase for several reasons. Raw materials, production and supplies become more expensive, excise taxes and staff salaries increase…
But will our fellow citizens drink less because cheaper vodka and cognac have become more expensive? Many experts doubt it.
“People, especially those with low incomes, begin to look for cheaper substitutes and switch to moonshine and substitutes – moonshine, medicines based on ethyl alcohol and other dangerous alcohol-containing products,” warns Maxim Chernigovsky. – Today you can find illegal vodka at a price of about 150 rubles per 0.5 liter.
In his opinion, an instrument such as minimum retail prices has become less effective.
“Initially, the MRP for strong alcohol was introduced as a barrier to the entry of illegal products into legal retail trade,” the expert recalls. – But in 2017, the EGAIS system was introduced (a unified state automated information system for recording the volume of production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products – Ed.), which strictly controls the entire path of strong alcohol from production to retail. And from this moment on, it is physically impossible for illegal products to reach official points of sale. In this sense, the MRC’s function as a counterfeit limiter has lost relevance.
Furthermore, the increase in the MRP has almost no effect on final prices for consumers.
“Today, the minimum retail price for half a liter of vodka is 299 rubles, but you can’t find it in stores at that price; you can’t lower it, but you can raise it,” says Chernigovsky. – Therefore, the arguments that it is necessary to increase the MRP due to the increase in producers’ costs seem controversial: even now vodka producers and sellers can set any price above the MRP: 400, 500 rubles or more.
