VAT increase | Koskenkorva became more expensive due to the VAT increase – this is Alko’s reasoning

Half a liter of Koskenkorva became more expensive than the VAT increase, according to HS’s Sunday morning spot test.

On Sunday, Finland got to wake up to a new morning in a more tense tax atmosphere than before, when the general value added tax rate had risen from 24 percent to 25.5 percent at the turn of the month.

Most products and services belong to the general VAT base, which means that the change has a wide-ranging effect. Government evaluatethat the prices of these products will rise by 1.2 percent, if the VAT increase is transferred in full to consumer prices.

However, this does not always happen, as the price is affected not only by taxation, but also by the competitive situation.

Half a liter of Koskenkorva liquor (38 percent alcohol) still cost 16.59 euros at the end of the weekday in Alko’s online store.

On Sunday morning, the price was 16.98 euros, i.e. 39 cents more. This means a price increase of more than two percent. If only the tax increase had been added directly to the price, the price would now be 16.79 euros.

In connection with the VAT change, Alko did the autumn pricing round at the same time, says Alko’s director of selection and procurement Anu Koskinen.

“Every time the summer selection changes to the winter selection, suppliers have the opportunity to check the price. They can either raise or lower the price, whatever their point of view is.”

I’ll start pricing differs from normal retail in that the supplier decides the retail price of the product, says Koskinen. Alko uses public and fixed, product group-specific capping factors for monopoly products. When making an offer, suppliers use these to calculate how much the final price will be.

So not all the increase will fall into Alko’s pocket, because according to Koskinen, as a rule of thumb, 17 euros from a 20-euro bottle of liquor is tax, 2 euros goes to the supplier and one euro to Alko.

Alko announced on Friday that the VAT increase applies to 90 percent of its products, i.e. all alcoholic beverages. This means about 8,000 different products.

The prices of alcoholic beverages will now rise by an average of one percent, the state liquor monopoly says. According to Alko, product prices have increased by an average of three percent compared to the end of last year.

HS has not received a comment from Anora, the manufacturer of Koskenkorva.

of HS the sample consisted of various consumer products from online stores. There were no changes in the prices of most of them on Sunday morning. However, a couple of upstarts emerged in addition to Koskenkorva.

The Fiskars splitting ax rose to 80 euros in the hardware store Stark’s online store, while at the end of the week it had been 78.90 euros. If the tax had been included in the price as it is without the merchant’s addition, the price would be 79.85 euros.

The pre-orderable Call of Duty war game was 80.99 euros in Giganti’s online store on Sunday morning, while it had been 79.99 euros during the week. If only the tax increase had been added to the price, the price would have been 80.96 euros.

Due is that the VAT change is reflected in the prices. A simple VAT increase means an increase of a few cents or euros, or even tens or hundreds of euros, depending on the value of the product. For products with a value close to one hundred thousand euros, the effect rises to more than one thousand euros.

In real life, new pricing is not always this straightforward.

For example, the trade group Kesko has commented that a change in VAT does not automatically mean a change in the retail price by the corresponding percentage.