MEDIA RELEASE
18 MARCH 2026
Brewers and Hospitality Call for 50% Reduction in Draught Beer Excise to Boost On-Premise Venues and Regional Communities
Hospitality New Zealand (Hospitality NZ) and the Brewers Guild of New Zealand, along with the Brewers Association, are urging the Government to introduce a 50% reduction in excise tax on draught beer sold for on-premise consumption.
The organisations say this targeted change would lower a major input cost, improve the viability of businesses, and support the regional communities that rely on pubs, bars, and taprooms for jobs, connection, and local economic activity.
Hospitality NZ Chief Executive, Kristy Phillips says: “A thriving pub sector is critical to local employment, tourism, and the social fabric of New Zealand. Reducing excise on draught beer is a practical step that backs venues, backs jobs, and backs communities.”
Executive Director of the Brewers Guild of New Zealand, Melanie Kees, says: “Breweries, especially our small and regional operators, are already under pressure from rising production and compliance costs, and current excise settings increase that burden.
“Reducing excise on beer served from kegs would not only support their ability to do business but also strengthen the entire value chain while protecting the community infrastructure and social spaces that pubs, bars, and taprooms provide.”
Over the past ten years, the market share of on-premises sales, and therefore that of draught beer, has collapsed from around 40% to about 15%, as New Zealanders have steadily shifted toward drinking at home.
Some of that shift can clearly be attributed to the cost of a pint. A recent Curia survey indicated 47% of respondents say they sometimes choose to drink beer at home because of the cost of going out. Among regular draught drinkers, 82% say they often choose to drink at home due to cost.
Because current settings treat packaged and draught beer the same, despite serving very different markets, the organisations see a reduction in excise tax on draught beer as a common-sense approach to rebalancing the market share of on-premise environments.
Kristy Phillips says: “More than 160,000 New Zealanders work in hospitality, many in regional areas. This is about keeping beer in supervised community spaces and keeping both hospitality venues and breweries not just surviving but thriving.
“With a modest, targeted change, we can lift regional economies, protect jobs, and sustain industries like brewing and hospitality without compromising public health goals.”
Internationally, New Zealand has become an outlier. The UK and Australia already apply a differentiated and reduced tax rate on draught rates to back their hospitality sectors. Aligning with these models would recognise the higher economic and social value created by on-premise consumption.
It’s believed this potential change will have a fiscally low impact on government revenue: firstly because keg beer represents a comparatively low volume of sales, so the excise reduction will only apply to a small proportion of beer sold, and secondly because it’s anticipated that greater on-premise activity will result in an increased GST take.
ENDS
