Canada’s federal government collected more excise tax revenue from cannabis than it did from beer and wine last year.
That comes as a parliamentary committee is recommending the government ease up on the cannabis tax.
In the 2022-23 fiscal year ended March 31, the federal government received 610.1 million Canadian dollars ($450 million) from excise duties applied to beer.
According to the country’s Public Accounts, which provides detail on the government’s financial operations, in the same fiscal year, excise from other products was:
Beer and wine excise revenue combined was CA$887.7 million.
Federal excise duties from cannabis that year, meanwhile, amounted to approximately CA$894.6 million, of which CA$667.6 million was transferred to provincial and territorial coffers.
That left about CA$227.1 million for the federal government in 2022-23.
The federal government’s share of the national excise cannabis levy has grown significantly in recent years.
In the fiscal years ended March 31, the federal government’s share of the cannabis excise levy was:
Canada’s cannabis levy has been subject to substantial scrutiny from the legal marijuana industry, which says the formula the government uses to apply the tax is disproportionate and unfair.
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