LETTER: Alcohol costs the economy
Covid-19 pandemic offers the government an opportunity to reform the sector
Peter Bruce is way off the mark in lauding the alcohol industry’s contribution to the economy. If his assessment is based solely on numbers, then one would think he has a point, for the tax revenues the government receives from booze are substantial. However, in 2015 road accidents and fatalities cost the economy a staggering R143bn, according to former Gauteng chief engineer Kobus Labuschagne. And this does not count unreported accidents.
Alcohol also conservatively accounts for more than 70% of road accidents, so extrapolate that and alcohol cost the economy R100bn in 2015. That is just on our roads; add to that the widespread domestic abuse, rape, depression and sheer bloody violence associated with alcohol and the impact on health services and public policing, and the cost to the economy is likely triple...
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