Sun, 19 Jan, 2014 03:39:16 AM Govt to place alcohol reforms bill in parliament in Spring FTimes-STT Report, January 19  Minister of Finance Jutta Urpilainen. Photo - Lehtikuva. Minister of Finance Jutta Urpilainen on Saturday said the government had no plan for further increasing the tax on alcohol and alcoholic beverages.
In an interview with the MTV, Urpilainen, chairperson of the Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (social democratic party), the second biggest component of the six-party government, said the relaxed taxation was being planned for reducing import of alcoholic products from Estonia.
“We have to carefully monitored how imports develop and how much tightening of alcohol taxation is required,” he said Urpilainen, adding that she did not see any further tightening in the near future.
File picture of alcohol. Photo - Lehtikuva. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has set in its agenda further tightening of alcohol taxation and dilution of beer.
Minister of Health and Social Services Susanna Huovinen of the SDP told Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday that the reforms on alcohol laws would be placed before the parliament in spring.
Earlier, on July 22, Health and Social Services Minister Susanna Huovinen underscored the need for detailed discussions to bring amendments in the alcohol law.
File picture of Health and Social Services Minister Susanna Huovinen. Photo - Lehtikuva. Huovinen said the ministry was planning to bring reforms in the alcohol law considering that consumption of alcohol caused huge losses to the society.
The minister at the global health conference, held in Helsinki from June 10 to June 14, also said the authorities had successfully been able to bring down alcohol consumption in the country by 10% in recent years to reduce harms caused by it.
The minister said they had been able to reduce the use of alcohol through the cooperation of different branches of administration and by increasing tax.
The minister claimed that alcohol-related deaths had decreased significantly with the reduction of alcohol consumption.
She also mentioned the restrictions on the advertisement of alcohol in social media.
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