The hunt for winemakers is disgusting, says the head of the association Chlad – Nauzal

How about the fact that you managed to lobby for zero excise duty on still wines?

I’m glad of course, it’s absolutely right. It’s honestly no win though. A disgusting hunt for the winemaker, full of lies, started around this. The whole package of measures will also affect us as individuals or legal entities. For beer, the VAT rate returns to 21 percent after two years, while it remains constant for wine. No one gave us an exception for two years.

In addition, winegrowers pay income tax, we are significantly affected by the adjustment of DPFO, DPPO, because we use “contractors” practically for half a year. Property taxes will also affect us. In addition, we pay four additional payments by law – for fruit-bearing vineyards, for grape verification, for wine classification and to the Wine Fund. The rest of the industry doesn’t pay that, so we don’t have it for free.

In addition, the exception for wines as gifts as eligible expenses, which for some wineries makes tens of percent of the turnover, was abolished. So it will be a big rush to replace this outage somewhere. And if it doesn’t succeed, not only will it result in a drop in sales, but it will also mean a reduced choice for the state.

Nevertheless, a lot of people think that it is unfair to brewers, for example, for whom the tax on draft beer is being increased.

As I said, after two years the rate of 21 percent VAT is returned to them, wine has never had it reduced. The arguments we discussed with the Moravian MPs should also be taken into account. After joining the European Union, we are primarily governed by European legislation, and ours must be compatible with it.

A directive has been in force since 1992, which determines the starting rates for consumption taxes on alcoholic beverages. Beer and spirits have a non-zero rate, still wine and sparkling wines have a zero rate. This is fully used by vineyard and wine-growing countries over 500 hectares, as well as those that import more than they produce. The EU is a single market, so we are not talking about any exceptions. Our only exception is that we have a rate of 23.40 crowns per liter for sparkling wines.

In Europe it was approached because making wine and beer are not the same. When you first set foot in a vineyard, it takes at least four years before you sell the first bottle. At the same time, the investment costs you 1.2 million per hectare. So you wait four years before cashing in on the investment. When you already have a vineyard, you wait three quarters of the year with huge risks of frost, drought and other factors for raw material that you can harvest once a year, if it is to be authentically Moravian. And then it goes through a production process of at least two months.

Whereas with beer, for example, with all due respect to the producers, it takes 30 to 40 days, depending on aging and fermentation, from the purchase of the raw materials before you open the bottle and drink the beer. Any time of the year and from ingredients from anywhere in the world.

So you don’t think it’s unfair to the brewers?

No, I don’t feel it is unfair, because we are based on legislation that has a clear basis in the European directive.

Nevertheless, many people are still alerted to the zero consumption tax on wine. Didn’t she become such a bitter symbol of the entire consolidation package?

Of course he did. From my point of view, because it is a topic that is easier to grasp, the confrontation of wine versus beer. No one has to think about it like, for example, in the case of pension valuations.

You mentioned MPs who made your lobby successful. What politicians have you dealt with?

The impulse for us was the NERV proposal, which was forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, even with some nonsense. That is why we contacted politicians primarily from wine regions. I personally was in contact with MP Pavlo Kašník (ODS), senators Rostó Koštial (ODS) and Tomáš Třetina (TOP 09), then also with MP Karl Smetana (KDU-ČSL) and the chairman of the economic committee in the Lower House Michal Kučera (TOP 09).

All the time, we also relied on the position of the Minister of Agriculture Zdenek Nekula and the Governor of the South Moravian Region, Jan Grolich (both KDU-ČSL), I also had feedback from MPs from the opposition. But I don’t know why we keep talking about the lobby. I don’t see anything wrong with that, after all, we elect our representatives to the House and Senate to defend our interests, that’s why they are there. And the goal was simple – to explain the arguments and point to specific points where NERV was wrong.

I have information that then there was a hype in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, because not everyone knew the information. The K15 negotiations were closed. We had mediators in MPs and senators so that we could further interpret our initiatives. We had two or three presentations, made some videos, linked to our site and started a petition. But everything peacefully, with pressure on arguments. In the last few days, we also held discussions at the Ministry of Finance, where our arguments and proposals were forwarded to the minister.

According to our information, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) was also against the introduction of excise tax on wine, is that true?

I am based on what the prime minister said in general before the election and in January after visiting the wine congress. His attitude was consistent, he did not want to put our industry at a disadvantage vis-à-vis other European countries, even with regard to the applicable legislation. But it was clear that the result would be a compromise of all five parties, not just the Prime Minister’s opinion.

So what did you promise yourself?

We agreed that it would be necessary to revise the directive within two years. On the one hand, the view of alcohol is changing, and in addition, with a well-executed change, we can significantly protect our market and our food.

The discussion is of course also clear from the point of view of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health. The report to the European Commission is normally prepared every two years, now towards the end of 2024. By that time, we should come up with a comprehensive proposal, which, however, will also concern the rest of the beverage industry.

The prime minister also talked about the fact that you will still discuss the consumption tax on wine. Do you already have a date when you will return to it?

I am in contact with the Ministry of Agriculture and we said we will meet during June.