Nicola Sturgeon has said costs would only rise for high-strength products sold at low prices The Scottish government is to name its proposed minimum price per unit of alcohol.
The SNP’s minimum price plan, which is contained in its Alcohol Bill, is an attempt to reduce consumption.
Opposition parties at Holyrood intend to unite to block the policy as they say it would hit responsible drinkers.
But Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has maintained that costs would only rise for high-strength products sold at rock-bottom prices.
MSPs in the Scottish Parliament voted for the principles of the Alcohol Bill in June.
Although opposition parties, who have a majority, have vowed to remove plans for minimum pricing at a later date.
The bill will come before MSPs at the Stage 2 committee later in the month and ministers have decided to name the price per unit so that it can be included in those discussions.
The minimum pricing move has received the backing of the British Medical Association in Scotland, the Royal College of Physicians and Alcohol Concern.
“The SNP’s plans are effectively a tax on the poor paid directly to the shareholders of the big supermarkets”
Jackie Baillie Labour’s health spokeswoman
But it has been criticised by some drinks companies, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association and the Scottish Retail Consortium, as well as opposition parties at Holyrood.
On Tuesday, the Scottish Labour Party’s alcohol commission published its report into the alternatives to minimum pricing.
It recommended a UK-wide “floor price” for alcohol, which would ban drink sales below the total cost of production, duty and VAT.
The commission, which was chaired by Professor Sally Brown, called for duty rises to be the “main lever” for achieving price increases.
However, the health secretary said this UK-wide approach would “pass the buck to Westminster”, and Alcohol Focus Scotland said it was unworkable because of the difficulty of calculating production costs.
The SNP’s minimum price policy was first mooted in March 2009, but the Scottish government has since failed to put a figure on how much would be charged.
It stated that it must examine all of the evidence before coming to a final decision – although 40p per unit has been suggested.
Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman Robert Brown said: “A lot of time and trouble would have been saved if the SNP government had announced the unit price at a much earlier stage than this.
“This would have allowed any implications to be properly examined by the health committee.
“The factor that Nicola Sturgeon has wilfully overlooked is the advent of the new coalition government which is considering proposals for a UK-wide alcohol pricing solution.
“They clearly prefer a pricing mechanism that stops artificially at the border.”
Jackie Baillie, Labour’s health spokeswoman, said: “I am glad that the SNP are finally going to name their price, but supermarket bosses must be licking their lips with anticipation at the windfall they would gain if the health secretary Nicola Sturgeon ever got a majority for her proposals.
“The Scottish government’s own study found that a minimum price of 40p per unit would deliver £113m of extra revenue for retailers. But it wouldn’t create a single extra penny for more police or the NHS.
“The SNP’s plans are effectively a tax on the poor paid directly to the shareholders of the big supermarkets.”
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