SAB calls on government to reconsider alcohol ban

DURBAN – South African Breweries (SAB) yesterday called for the government to reconsider the ban on the sale and local transportation of alcohol as the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic crashed a strong performance in the first two months of the year.

SAB warned that the continued sales ban and the prevention of transporting the inventory to the warehouses would come at a huge cost for both the company and the government.

The brewer said that it currently has 132 million litres of beer – roughly the equivalent of 400 million bottles of beer – sitting in its tanks.

“If SAB is not able to resume transporting inventory, it will be forced to discard this inventory at a loss of an estimated R150 million.

“The economic effects for the government would be even more severe. The immediate loss to the government in excise tax would be R500m as the government does not collect excise for unpacked beer,” SAB said.