How We Are Funded

ALAC is funded by a tariff or levy on alcohol produced or imported for sale in New Zealand. It includes liquor imported into, or manufactured in New Zealand and includes beer, grape wine, spirits and fruit wine.

Levy collection

From 1 July 2004, Customs has acted on behalf of ALAC to collect the levy from all local manufacturers and importers. Payments from producers and importers are made monthly to Customs. This is collected at the same time as, and in addition to, any excise duty payable under the Customs and Excise Act 1996. Customs forwards the collected levy funds to ALAC.

The amount that has been approved by Cabinet for the 2011/12 year is $12.7M.

How is the levy calculated?

The Alcohol Advisory Council Act 1976 was amended early in 2010 to change the way the levy is set.

The method involves determining a levy payable considering each of the six classes of liquor described in the Act. The classes are based on the volume of alcohol per litre of liquor. Each class is assigned a rate that broadly represents the amount of alcohol in the various kinds of liquor within the class. The levy is calculated by applying that rate.

The Act specifies the rate for classes A, C, and D, but describes the rate for classes B, E and F as variable. Each year, the rate to be applied to those classes must be determined by the Minister, based on the volume of liquor of each class that was imported or manufactured in the previous year.

The following table shows the rates set for each class including the three variable rates (classes B, E and F) for 2011/12.

Download a PDF copy of the table here.

The rates are exclusive of GST.