Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — 2. Sparkling cider (rate of duty) — 15 Mar 1999

The Aye voters passed clause 1 of the Finance Bill 1999 which increased the duty on sparkling cider and perry as follows:

"(1) In section 62(1A)(a) of the Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979, for "£45.05" there shall be substituted "£161.20".
(2) This Resolution shall have effect as from 6 o'clock in the evening of 9th March 1999."

The reason for this significant increase can be seen from the Treasury's notes on the clauses of the Finance Bill 1999. As it says:

"Infraction proceedings against the UK were threatened by the European Commission in 1995, alleging that sparkling cider (mainly domestically produced) had a duty advantage over competing lower-strength sparkling wine (mainly imported). The products are often similar in taste and alcoholic strength and some were being offered for sale with very similar presentations."

Since lower-strength sparkling wine was subject to a higher duty, the lower duty on sparkling cider was distorting competition hence why the government chose to significantly increase the duty on the latter.

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con0 139 (+2 tell)087.0%
Lab330 (+2 tell) 0079.6%
LDem0 42091.3%
PC0 3075.0%
SNP0 60100.0%
UUP0 5050.0%
Total:330 195082.0%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

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NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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