Moscow, Oct 27 - Russia's plans to triple duties on beer could cost the country 100,000 jobs and may prompt Carlsberg to shut factories, chief executive of the Danish brewer was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Russia plans to triple the excise duty on beer from the current 3 roubles, to bring in an extra 65 billion roubles ($2.25 billion) of revenues next year to plug the budget deficit of the recession-hit economy.
"By our estimates, if the current proposal to increase excise duties is approved -- and we sincerely hope that will not happen -- around 100,000 people could end up out of work," Carlsberg's Joergen Rasmussen told Vedomosti business daily.
The world's fourth-biggest brewer owns Russia's Baltika and earns nearly half its profits from Russia where it is by far the largest brewer with some 40 percent of the market.
Rasmussen said the fall in overall beer sales in Russia would be "significant", but declined to give an estimate.
"If the proposal is passed we may be forced to close factories," he said.
In addition to the tax hikes, Russia's industries and trade ministry has proposed drastic limits on beer sales, after President Dmitry Medvedev ordered tough measures to curb alcohol abuse..
Russia has one of the world's highest per-capita rates of alcohol consumption, which is linked to low life expectancy. But Rasmussen said such measures would not solve the problem.
"The rise in (beer) prices will not change the habits of those who abuse alcohol...They will move to cheap vodka and the problem will be exacerbated," he said.
Rasmussen also said Carlsberg had no plans to buy the remaining 7-8 percent of Baltika from the market and to delist the company.