Finance Act 1964

2 Beer

(1) There shall be charged—

(a) on beer brewed in the United Kingdom a duty of excise at the rates shown in Schedule 2 to this Act, and

(b) on beer imported into the United Kingdom duties of customs at the rates so shown.

(2) Drawback under sections 137 and 138 of the Act of 1952 shall, where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners that a duty of excise or customs charged under this section has been paid, be allowed at the appropriate rate shown in the said Schedule 2.

(3) The rates of duties of customs, and of customs drawback, shown in the fourth and fifth columns in the said Schedule 2 apply respectively to beer qualifying for Commonwealth preference and to beer of Convention area origin within the meaning of the European Free Trade Association Act 1960, and the rates of duties of customs, and of customs drawback, in the third column in the said Schedule 2 apply to beer which is not chargeable at the rates shown in the said fourth and fifth columns.

(4) The duties charged, and the drawbacks allowed, by this section are instead of the duties charged, and the drawbacks allowed, at the rates set out in Schedule 2 to the Finance Act 1962, and instead of the customs duty and the drawbacks charged and allowed in respect of beer under section 2 of the Finance Act 1933 and section 3(3) of the Finance Act 1957 (duty on hops and additional duty of customs in respect of beer).

(5) Black beer the worts whereof before fermentation were of a specific gravity of 1200 degrees or more shall not be charged with duty under section 1 of the Finance Act 1959 or with any duty under this section, and—

(a) except for the purpose of drawback of duty charged at the rates in force before the coming into force of this section, the expression " beer " in. the customs and excise Acts shall not include such black beer,

(b) the substances to which section 164 of the Act of 1952 (penalties for mis-describing substances as beer) apply shall not include such black beer, and for the purposes of that section the name " black beer" shall not in itself be taken to be such a description as to indicate that a substance is or is a substitute for, or bears any resemblance to, beer or any description of beer,

(c) all references in the customs and excise Acts to black beer shall be omitted, and

(d) section 2 of the Finance Act 1930 (duty on imported black beer) shall cease to have effect.

In this subsection " black beer " means beer of the description called or similar to black beer, mum, spruce beer or Berlin white beer, and any other preparation, whether fermented or not, of a similar character, and in the definition of " beer " in section 307(1) of the Act of 1952 the words " black beer " shall be omitted but that shall not be taken as excluding from that definition anything other than black beer of the kind exempted from duty by this subsection.

(6) This section shall have effect as from 15th April 1964.