The expert spoke about the reasons for the decline in alcohol sales in Russia.

The drop in alcohol sales in Russia is directly related to the indexation of excise taxes and minimum prices, which outstripped inflation, Pavel Shapkin, head of the National Alcohol Policy Development Center, told Izvestia.

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"Since January 1, 2025, excise tax rates have increased by 15%, minimum prices by 17%, as a result, the budget has received an additional 10% of excise revenues (over 550 billion rubles in total), and consumption has decreased towards the target of 7.8 liters of pure alcohol per person by 2030. Given the new 15% indexation of excise taxes from January 1, 2026, the task can be completed this year," the expert noted.

He recalled that starting from May 1, 2024, excise taxes on low-alcohol products increased 3-5 times, which led to an 18-fold drop in sales in a year and a half.

"The price directly affects the sales volume of anything, especially alcoholic beverages. The price, rather than additional restrictions, influenced the decline in performance," Shapkin stressed.

So far, regional budgets have received additional income from alcohol compared to 2024. But, perhaps, by the end of 2026, the amount of excise duties will not increase, he believes.

As it became known earlier, in Russia in 2025, retail sale of alcoholic beverages (excluding beer, beer drinks, cider, poire and mead) It decreased by 9.3% to 205.8 million decaliters by 2024. This was reported by Rosalokoltabakcontrol.

Read more in the Izvestia article:

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