The increase in motor fuel excise duty originally scheduled to take place in January was postponed by the government until the beginning of February. The duty rate rose from €448 to €493 per 1,000 liters of diesel, Ministry of Finance spokespeople told BNS.

Excise duty previously accounted for €0.465 euros and will now make up €0.512 euros of the cost of a liter of gasoline.

The excise duty for a liter of beer rose from 8.30 cents to 9.13 cents per percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV) on Wednesday and will increase further to 15.52 cents at the beginning of July.

The excise duty for wine and other fermented beverages with an alcohol content of up to 6 percent (ABV) rose from 48.55 cents to 53.41 cents on Wednesday and will jump to 77.44 cents in July. For wine and fermented beverages with an alcohol content exceeding 6 percent ABV, the increase effective from Wednesday was from 111.98 cents to 123.18 cents.

The rate of the duty for hard alcohol will rise by ten percent every year through 2020, with the increase for 2017 also taking effect on Wednesday.

A 0.5-liter can of beer which prior to the hike cost €1.09 will cost €1.11 following th February hike and €1.29 following the second hike in July, taking into account only the excise duty portion of the price.

The rise would be from €5.79 to €5.89 for a 0.75-liter bottle of wine with an alcohol content of up to 12 percent ABV, while a bottle of vodka that used to cost €20.90 will cost €21.94 beginning Wednesday, it appears from ministry calculations.

The excise duty per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas increased from €33.77 to €40.52 at the beginning of January, when the excise duty on cigarettes and tobacco also rose eight percent, meaning an increase of 27 cents per package of 20 basic brand cigarettes.