Revenue from excise tax on palinka -- the Hungarian eau de vie -- distilled on contract by private individuals rose over HUF 8bn in 2009 from HUF 5.72bn in 2008, business daily Napi Gazdasag reported.
Hungarians who bring their own fermented fruit to contract distilleries must pay excise tax of HUF 690 per litre of up to 50 litres of distillate and more up to 86 litres, the threshold for personal consumption. Assuming these Hungarians did not exceed the 50-litre mark in 2009, they brought home almost 13m litres of 100-proof palinka, Napi Gazdasag calculated.
Excise tax and customs office VPOP estimates Hungarians made 8.1m litres of palinka for personal consumption in 2008, 7.3m in 2007 and 15.4m in 2006. Almost 700 contract distilleries operate in Hungary.
