Minimum alcohol pricing is likely to be law in Scotland by April next year, following the victory by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in elections north of the border earlier this month (May), reports today’s Independent Retail News.
The SNP failed to introduce minimum pricing last year because as a minority government it could not get the support of the other parties in the Scottish parliament.
But the party now has a majority and it pledged to introduce minimum pricing in its election manifesto as a“priority” in its first legislative programme of the new parliament.
Pundits expect the Scottish government to opt for a minimum price of 45p per unit of alcohol. An industry observer said it would be fairly simple for the government to re-introduce last year’s defeated minimum price plans.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Grocers’ Federation said: “As they have got a majority in parliament they can do as they like. They have run the research and the legislation was written. It isn’t a big challenge to get it up and running again.”
The independent retail trade is fairly ambivalent about the proposals. Minimum pricing could make it easier for retailers to compete on price with the major supermarkets, but it could also limit their own scope for price promotions. There are also fears minimum pricing could fuel the illicit trade and increase cross-border and internet trading.
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