Brewers and cafe owners will be involving the public in their campaign against the high duty on beer, sector organisation Nederlandse Brouwers said on Thursday.

The brewers and cafe owners are fed up with the constant increases in beer duty and want the government to scrap the latest planned increase of 14%, which is due to come into force on January 1.

Nederlandse Brouwers and other sector organisations have set up a joint website, stopbierbelasting (stop beer tax) and are collecting signatures for a petition.

‘We are collecting signatures in various cities in cafes and shopping centres and at events,’ Nederlandse Brouwers’ director Cees-Jan Adema told the Volkskrant.

€5 a crate

‘The Dutch beer sector pays around €390m a year in duties, and that does not include 21% value-added tax,’ Adema told the paper. ‘It will soon cost consumers €5 in tax for a crate of beer,’ he told the paper.

Petitions can force parliament to debate a subject if they contain enough signatures. Earlier this year, a petition of 40,000 signatures forced parliament to debate holding a referendum on Europe.