Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior re­porter 

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Bar and restau­rant own­ers say sales have plum­met­ed, with cus­tomers cut­ting back, as the 100 per cent in­crease in ex­cise du­ty took ef­fect af­ter be­ing an­nounced in the 2026 Bud­get, which led to a rise in the cost of beer and al­co­holic bev­er­ages.

Own­ers say they are al­ready strug­gling to cov­er op­er­a­tional costs and main­tain prof­it.

At Club 2011 in Debe, own­er Ash­mir Mo­hammed said sales have dropped 40 to 50 per cent over the past two weeks, par­tic­u­lar­ly for pop­u­lar rums such as White Oak and Pun­cheon. “I will say it very, very blunt­ly—they (cus­tomers) say­ing they will go back to look­ing for cheap rum and bush rum,” Mo­hammed said. 

He added that pa­trons, who once bought full nips, are now tak­ing on­ly a small shot with a beer be­fore leav­ing.

“We used to sell a beer here for $10, now we are sell­ing at $13,” lament­ed Mo­hammed, who added, “A pun­cheon shot was 18, now we’re sell­ing that for $28.”

Mo­hammed said the sud­den price hike is putting im­mense pres­sure on bar own­ers. “It is very hard for us now be­cause we have elec­tric­i­ty to pay, work­ers to pay, the gen­er­al in­fra­struc­ture, li­cence to pay. So I don’t know how we will make out, and I am sure a lot of the small­er bars, the im­pact they have on them, they will have no choice but to close, es­pe­cial­ly if you have work­ers to pay and rent to pay,” he added.  Mo­hammed is re­view­ing whether the busi­ness can re­main prof­itable. “Right now, it is like we do­ing a fea­si­bil­i­ty study on how to op­er­ate the busi­ness to make a prof­it or if to di­ver­si­fy to some­thing else,” Mo­hammed said.

At Ather­ly’s Restau­rant and Bar in San Fer­nan­do, own­er Paula Ather­ly shared sim­i­lar con­cerns. “It’s dis­as­trous. You can see if you look around the restau­rant, there is no­body here,” she lament­ed.

“If I was sell­ing a Carib for $15, I now have to sell it for $18. A Heineken for $20 has gone to $25, for me to main­tain all of my over­head costs.”

Cus­tomers, Ather­ly said, are strug­gling to cope with ris­ing costs. 

With land­lords now pay­ing high­er tax­es on rental in­come from com­mer­cial prop­er­ties, she said, busi­ness own­ers who rent may face in­creased costs.

She said the sit­u­a­tion is fright­en­ing. “You have elec­tric­i­ty for com­mer­cial build­ing go­ing to go up ... salaries (to pay). Where is it com­ing from? How are small busi­ness­es go­ing to stay afloat? They can’t. I don’t know how they ex­pect peo­ple to live?”

Cus­tomer Ro­mario Gar­cia ad­mit­ted pa­trons are al­so feel­ing the pinch.

“For me, you see, I am drink­ing by my­self—that is re­al­ly the re­al way to do it nowa­days.”

Mean­while, Bar Keep­ers and Own­ers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Satesh Moonasar said the im­pact dif­fers by lo­ca­tion.

“More vil­lage bars, like in the rur­al ar­eas, it would have a greater ef­fect on them as the spend­ing pow­er of the con­sumers would be a lot less. It all de­pends on the lo­ca­tion of your bar,” he said. Moonasar said while some cus­tomers are switch­ing to cheap­er brands, those who can af­ford it will con­tin­ue to buy their pre­ferred drinks.