Bar and restaurant provide increases

The bars and restaurants sector, which comprises about 1 million establishments in the country, tries to get the federal Government to review the decision to increase the tax burden on beers and sodas from 1st June. If you cannot, "to attempt to retrieve a bit our margin, we have to increase the final price of the product at least 10% to 12%," said yesterday Paul Solmucci, President of the Brazilian Association of bars and Restaurants (Abrasel).
The new reference table of rates for payment of IPI, PIS/Cofins, should begin to take effect on the 1st of June. "We're not getting new tables still prices of manufacturers. We want the Government to review this decision. But if the increase comes, companies will pass on and the bars and restaurants will be the villains of the World Cup, "said Solmucci. Liquor sales are equivalent to 40% to 60% of the revenues of bars and restaurants.
He gave some examples of tax burden increases, second measure announced by the Irs on April 30: "the beer Caracu came with 400% tax increase, Coca-Cola, of 18%, Guarana, of 23%." The beers and Ambev Skol, Brahma, will have to pay a 36% higher load.
Solmucci has no doubt that the industry will pass through tax increases. The beer sector, reminded, is dominated by four companies, and the largest of them, Ambev, has about 70 percent of the market. The soft drinks segment is dominated by Coca-Cola. PepsiCo's portfolio is distributed by Ambev, which is also trying to reverse, in Brasilia, the increase which can enter into force in three weeks.
Solmucci sought the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, in Brasília, and asked that the lawsuit be sector driven President Dilma Rousseff. "I find it hard to believe the Government, which has not yet solved the problem of their spending and expanded funding to Bolsa Família and reset the table, take it back," said the President of the National Association of Restaurants (ANR), Cristiano Melles.