The Scotch Whisky Association are backing a Drop the Duty! campaign to help their trade and boost public finances.
They and other UK distillers and the wine industry have commissioned a report calling for a 2% cut in alcohol duty at the next UK Budget in March to give Chancellor George Osborne £1.5 billion to spend.
The analysis by EY is also supported by the TaxPayers’ Alliance and aims to raise awareness of the high rate of tax UK consumers pay and mobilise the public to take action.
UK consumers pay nearly 80% tax on an average priced bottle of spirits and almost 60% on an average priced bottle of wine.
That equates to 78% tax (£10.06) on an average bottle of whisky costing £12.90.
The EY report concludes that a 2% duty cut would increase the wine and spirits industry’s contribution to economic activity by £3.9bn, from £46.6bn to £50.4bn.
It also says the industry’s direct contribution to UK Gross Domestic Product would increase by £0.9bn, from £11.8bn to £12.7bn.
The wine and spirit industry supports around 518,000 jobs in the UK, with the majority (69%) directly dependent on the industry’s activity.
The Scotch whisky industry supports around 40,000 jobs.
Using the strapline, Small drop, big cheer, the Drop the Duty! campaign is calling on all UK consumers to speak out about the level of tax by emailing their MP via the campaign website to urge George Osborne to make this modest 2% cut in duty across all alcohol products in Budget 2015.
SWA chief executive David Frost said: “This is unfair on both consumers and the Scotch Whisky industry.
“We are calling for George Osborne to do the right thing and cut excise duty by 2% in next year’s Budget.
“New evidence shows that lowering these draconian levels of excise duty would actually boost public finances and the economy, as well as benefit consumers.”
Excise duty has risen by 44%, or £2.42, a bottle since 2008.
Under the current government, tax on spirits has increased by 25%.
Duty on Scotch whisky, and all spirits, was last cut in 1996, and has only been cut three times in a century.
The number of bottles of Scotch whisky released for sale in the UK last year was 87.5 million, down 2.95% from 90m bottles in 2012.
The number in the first half of this year was 35.4m, down 7.30% from 38.2m in the first half of last year.