Alcohol sales are down, and people are now opting to buy cheaper spirits on the heels of Government’s decision to increase excise duty rates, on alcoholic beverages, Derek Waddell, managing director of Carib Brewery Ltd, said yesterday.

’So far, what we’ve seen is there has been some dampening of sales,’ Waddell said as he spoke about the effects of the alcohol tax increase, which was announced in the 2009/2010 Budget.

Trade Minister Mariano Browne has defended the tax hike, saying Government’s move to increase the cost of alcohol and tobacco will help save lives and prevent young adults from consuming too much alcohol and tobacco.

But economists have described the demand for such ’addictive’ substances as ’inelastic’ and have said the increase will do nothing but increase Government’s revenue bank and make consumers pay more for the goods as addicts and habitual users will drink and smoke anyway.

When asked if the increase has put a damper on their consumption of spirits yesterday, two people at the Dragon Boys Bar in downtown Port of Spain disagreed, ’No, I’m a drinker; I does drink.’

Waddell, however, said while the sale of beers and lower-priced alcohol were affected, ’some of the higher-end alcohol is actually more impacted. I think it (the decrease in sales) is normal as with any increase, you have a period of uncertainty though. It would take a couple of months to see what kind of long-term trend develops though’.

He said he could not say whether or not the decrease in sales following the increase in prices would be permanent. But he did say that people’s ’taste’ would change now, in accordance with what they could afford.