MORE than £4 of every £5 spent on Scotch whisky will go straight to the UK Chancellor unless he yields to industry calls to cancel pre-planned tax rises, a trade body has said.

Some 79% of the price of an average bottle of Scotch Whisky is made up of duty and VAT, according to the Scotch Whisky Association.

If the alcohol duty escalator were implemented again at this week's Budget, this would go up to 81%.

The SWA's Call Time on Duty campaign, backed by the Wine & Spirit Trade Association and the Taxpayers' Alliance, is calling on George Osborne to scrap the alcohol duty escalator and freeze duty on Wednesday.

The escalator, introduced in 2008, automatically increases duty on wine and spirits by inflation plus 2%.