Dry law not written? Where and for how much Ukrainians buy alcohol during the war

With the introduction of martial law in the country, the authorities banned the sale of strong alcohol. Wine and vodka departments in stores are closed, but citizens find where to get booze from under the floor. Vodka prices have skyrocketed.

“Today” learned how much strong alcohol costs in different regions and how much the state loses by banning its sale.

More expensive than in a restaurant

Now many Ukrainians have moved to the western regions. Officially, alcohol is not sold in stores, but you can buy strong alcohol from under the floor. We asked our friends, who now live in different cities, how they circumvent the dry law in each region.

“People buy moonshine in the market, and vodka is poured from teapots in cafes. Friends ordered delivery of premium alcohol by mail, everything has arrived,” says Andrei from Kiev, who lives in Rivne.

According to him, some residents of Kiev, who left the keys to friends so that they looked after their housing at the time of departure, give the go-ahead to “gut” their alcohol stocks in the apartments.

“There is a distillery in Lutsk, so it’s not a problem to get alcohol or left-handed vodka here. All of them are our own, and the city is not big. At the same time, I didn’t see drunk people around the city,” says Dmitry from Kiev.

In the villages of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, buying strong alcohol is also not a problem. In any market you will be shown those who sell alcohol.

“120 UAH costs a liter of wine, about 160 UAH they ask for liquor per liter, and the most expensive moonshine costs about 240 UAH per liter. Strong tinctures are sold at the same price. house,” says Alexey from Kiev.

And the most expensive alcohol we found is sold in Lviv. There, according to friends, a half-liter bottle of vodka is sold for 300-400 UAH, and half a liter of the most budgetary whiskey – for 600-700 UAH. Prices there have become, as in restaurants before the war.

With beer, the situation differs significantly by region. In some areas, the local authorities allowed its sale, but in some areas they did not.

Will it hit the budget?

Experts say that the ban on the sale of alcohol affects not only citizens who need to “take it on their chests”, but also the country’s budget. After all, taxes there come, including from the sale of legal alcohol – excise and VAT.

“In the current 2022, given the war in the country, and, as a result, the outflow of the population from Ukraine, the fall in their income, the inflow of funds to the budget from alcoholic products would be minimal. The ban on the sale of alcohol, in itself, is considered as a powerful damage it is difficult for the economy, since these are not the basic products of the consumer basket and a person can live without alcohol,” says Maxim Oryshchak, an analyst at the Center for Exchange Technologies.

The expert says that this is one of the positions for which the budget will receive less money, not only because of taxes, but because of the stoppage of production.

“The sale of alcoholic beverages is not only the sale of a product. This is the formation of demand for enterprises, which means that there is work, there will be no demand now, that is, enterprises will stop their activities, people will be sent on vacation at their own expense (if someone else stayed in country) and there will be no consumption of utilities, no jobs, no tax deductions,” says Maxim Oryshchak.

If we talk about direct budget losses from tax shortfalls, then the math is as follows.

“If we take approximate data, then the excise tax on alcoholic beverages imported and produced in Ukraine is about 2% of the country’s GDP. In absolute terms, looking at the statistics of previous years, this is about UAH 40 billion,” says Maxim Oryshchak.

That is, during the three weeks of the war, about UAH 2.3 billion did not go to the treasury from the excise tax alone. True, in the near future, Ukrainians may begin to give up expensive alcohol and switch to a natural product.

“I think that after the end of the war and the resumption of economic activity in Ukraine, the demand for legal expensive alcohol will not be high,” Maxim Oryshchak summarizes.

Earlier we wrote how Ukrainians sell apartments according to “gray” schemes. Read about how to properly manage money during the war.