Labelling of spirits on consumer packaging

Draft Act amending certain tax-related acts and certain other acts

In accordance with Directive 2015/1535/EU, we are notifying the entire draft regulation, i.e. the Draft Act amending certain tax-related acts and certain other acts; the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic considers only Part Twenty-Seven of the draft to be a technical regulation.Hence only the relevant legislation is being sent as basic legislation (i.e. Act No 307/2013 on compulsory labelling of spirits, as amended).
One of the main changes in the amendment to Act No 307/2013 on compulsory labelling of spirits, is, inter alia, adjustment of the security deposit paid by alcohol distributors consisting of setting the deposit amount contingent on the volume of alcohol in consumer packaging acquired by the alcohol distributor during the calendar year.
Currently the alcohol distributor's deposit is not tiered, and is fixed at CZK 5 million.It is now proposed that the alcohol distributor's deposit shall have several tiers, i.e. the volume of alcohol in consumer packaging that the given tier makes it possible to acquire.In the case of the existing deposit of CZK 5 million,the volume of alcohol that an alcohol distributor is authorised to acquire in free tax circulation or to sell or otherwise transfer is, as is currently the case, in principle unlimited.For the smallest entities, introduction of a reduced deposit of CZK 500,000 in legislation is proposed, the provision of which entitles them to acquire a maximum of 25,000 litres of alcohol in consumer packaging in one calendar year.At the same time, a deposit tier of CZK 1 million is
proposed, the provision of which will give the right to acquire a maximum of 50,000 litres of alcohol in consumer packaging.This criterion should be forward-looking, i.e. it should not be derived from the volume of alcohol acquired in the past calendar year, but rather provision of a deposit of a certain amount should establish authorisation to subsequently acquire alcohol up to the volume stipulated by the Act.This will primarily ensure a legal barrier so that the amount of alcohol distributed and the amount of the deposit actually paid are not disproportionate. Simultaneously, an appropriate sanction ensures that the distributor does not exceed the volume of alcohol they are authorised to acquire.

Keywords:consumer packaging, alcohol, security deposit