Raising excise duty on spirits
Act amending the annex to the Act on Excise Duty on Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages
Taxation of spirits and strong intermediate products will be increased in 2025–2027. The increases will raise consumer prices of spirits moderately over the next three years.
- Status
- Passed
- Submitted
- 23 Sep 2024
- Latest event
- 28 Nov 2024
- Votes
- 2
- Speeches
- 11
- Confirmed
- 5 Dec 2024
- Statute
- 707/2024
- Source
- eduskunta.fi ↗
What is proposed
Excise duty on ethyl alcohol beverages exceeding 10 per cent (such as spirits, whiskies and liqueurs) and intermediate products exceeding 15 to 22 per cent (such as fortified wines) will be increased in line with the projected consumer price index by 1.3–1.8 per cent annually, or a total of 4.6 per cent in 2025–2027. Mixed drinks containing at most 10 per cent alcohol and intermediate products containing at most 15 per cent will be excluded from the tax increase by restructuring the ethyl alcohol tax categories.
What it means
The act will enter into force on 1 January 2025. The amendment will raise consumer prices of spirits by an estimated 1 per cent a year (a total of around 3 per cent, or about 1.10 euros per litre) and prices of strong intermediate products by just under 2 per cent in total (about 0.50 euros per litre), while the increase in restaurant prices will be smaller. The increases will affect consumers, Alko, the restaurant industry, and companies manufacturing and importing spirits. State alcohol tax revenues are estimated to increase by around 3 million euros in 2025 and 2026 and by around 4 million euros in 2027.
How Parliament voted
The act ultimately passed without a vote: no MP proposed rejecting it in the final reading. The votes concerned details of the act.
Käsittelyn pohja, mietintö / Joona Räsänen
Yes won by 98–70.
Government yes, opposition no. 31 MPs were absent. Minutes ↗
Filled dot = yes, ring = no, grey = absent. Point at a dot to see the MP. Seats follow the current seating plan (updated 18 Sep 2026). 5 MPs who voted are not in the current seating plan.
A passed act does not enter into force immediately: the President of the Republic confirms it, and it enters into force on the date set in the act. This act was confirmed on 5 Dec 2024.
Debate in the chamber
What was argued and where each group stood, followed by MPs' speeches verbatim from the parliamentary record. Speeches are shown in their original language.
11 speeches · 1 debate
Key points of the debate
The debate addressed the tax increase on spirits and the Government's overall alcohol policy. The opposition criticised the fact that taxes are being increased only on spirits while taxation on beer had previously been lowered. The proposal sparked strong disagreement, and the opposition submitted dissenting opinions to the bill.
- Should tax increases and index-linking be extended to all alcoholic beverages rather than spirits alone?
- Should the earlier beer tax reduction have been reversed to strengthen state tax revenues?
- Are the Government's alcohol and tax policy value choices justified from the perspective of public health?
- National Coalition PartyIn favour
The group supported a moderate tax increase on spirits to strengthen state tax revenues and considered it important to monitor trends in passenger imports.
”Valiokunta omassa kannassaan päätyi puoltamaan esityksen hyväksymistä muuttamattomana sekä kansantaloudellisista että ennen kaikkea valtiontaloudellisista syistä.”
— Ville Valkonen - Social DemocratsAgainst
The SDP opposed the proposal in its current form and called for beer duty to be restored to its previous level in the interest of tax fairness and the state revenue base.
”Näin ollen ei tapahtuisi myöskään sitä, että suosisimme tietyntyyppisiä alkoholijuomia verotuksessa enemmän kuin toisia, joten tämä olisi myös alkoholin osalta huomattavasti neutraalimpi tapa.”
— Joona Räsänen - Centre PartyAgainst
The Centre Party opposed the government proposal and demanded that all alcoholic beverages be linked to the index and that the earlier beer tax reduction be reversed for reasons of public finances and public health.
”Lisäksi keskusta sitoisi kaikki alkoholijuomat indeksiin ja valmistelisimme myös virvoitusjuomien veroon indeksikorotuksen.”
— Markus Lohi
This digest was generated by AI from 11 speeches 13 Sep 2026. Group positions are read from the speeches, not from votes; quotations were checked verbatim against the record.
Yleiskeskustelu päättyi ja asian käsittely keskeytettiin.
Stages of consideration
The bill's path from the preliminary debate to the decision, as recorded by Parliament.
- 23 Sep 2024Eduskuntakäsittelyn vireilletulo · Valtiovarainministeriö
- 24 Sep 2024Lähetekeskustelu · Täysistunto
- 19 Nov 2024Valiokunnan mietintö tai lausunto · valtiovarainvaliokunta
- 22 Nov 2024Ensimmäinen käsittely · Täysistunto
- 26 Nov 2024Toinen käsittely · Täysistunto
- 27 Nov 2024Eduskunnan vastaus ja kirjelmä
Decisions by law proposal1
- 1Laki alkoholi- ja alkoholijuomaverosta annetun lain liitteen muuttamisestaHyväksytty · 707/2024 · 5 Dec 2024
Proposed law text
The law proposals in the bill as the Government presented them. The final act may differ after committee consideration.
The law text is shown in Finnish or Swedish from Parliament's official documents; it is not translated into English.
Laki alkoholi- ja alkoholijuomaverosta annetun lain liitteen muuttamisesta
Eduskunnan päätöksen mukaisesti muutetaan alkoholi- ja alkoholijuomaverosta annetun lain (1471/1994) liite, sellaisena kuin se on laissa 1236/2023, seuraavasti:
§
Tämä laki tulee voimaan päivänä kuuta 20 .
Main content of the bill (official)
The summary and title were produced with AI on 25 Aug 2026. They are not official documents – check the details in the original bill. The title and summaries are machine translations of the Finnish AI summaries. Speeches and quotations are always shown in their original language.