Rum Provision Misconstrued

With all the bailout drama over the past couple of weeks, the spirits industry was inadvertently thrown into the spotlight by a small provision renewing a rum tax rebate to the U.S. Caribbean territories.Puerto Rican and U.S. Virgin Islands governments use rebate money to finance infrastructure and public services. The U.S. sends back most of the Federal Excise Tax collected on imported rum produced in the islands - all but $0.25 of the $13.50. It expired at the end of