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MOSCOW, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Russia's lower house of parliament on Friday cleared the first reading of a bill to triple duties on beer, a move the government hopes will help plug a budget deficit and beer majors fear could lead to factory shutdowns. The bill was approved by a majority of 315 votes to include amendments to the tax code to increase the duty on beer to 9 roubles from the current 3 roubles. The bill implies the duties will rise to 10 roubles from Jan. 1 2011 and to 12 roubles from Jan. 1 2012 for the beer which averaged from 0.5 percent to 8.6 percent alcohol per one litre and makes more than 90 percent of all beer sold in Russia. Government officials have said the bill will bring in an extra 65 billion roubles ($2.24 billion) of budget revenues in 2010, specifying this would go into the regional and federal budgets, which is seen running a deficit of 6.8 percent of GDP next year, or around 3 trillion roubles. It was not immediately clear when the Duma will hear the bill in the key second reading, when most draft bills can be amended. Danish brewer Carlsberg has said the firm could shut down some factories in Russia while new higher duties could cost the country some 100,000 jobs. The shares of Carlsberg, which owns Russia's largest brewer, Baltika, have regularly fallen in the past months on news from Russia alongside the shares of SabMiller and Heineken . Apart from higher duties, a ministry has proposed drastic limits on beer sales via kiosks and in markets which industry experts say could affect over 25 percent of sales in Russia. The proposal, which has yet to be reviewed and approved by the government, came shortly after President Dmitry Medvedev ordered tough measures to curb alcohol abuse, describing alcoholism as a "national disaster". (Reporting by Maria Plis, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by Dmitry Sergeyev and Andy Bruce) ($1=29.01 Rouble) Keywords: RUSSIA BEER/ (Moscow Newsroom, + 7 495 775 12 42) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
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