That's because the liquor agency is increasing the mark-up on booze. On a bottle of Ontario wine, for example, the government will take 71.5%, up from 65.5%, according to the Toronto Star.

Anthony Bristow said while it would be nice to see wine prices go down and mark-ups decrease, the government has always been upfront about making booze "revenue neutral" with the implementation of the HST.

Wineries won't lose any cash, said Bristow, chief operating offi- cer at Grimsby-based wine company Andrew Peller Ltd.

The markup will just offset the 4% tax differential, he said.

"It doesn't change the status quo," he said.

"No one's getting less or more for their product because of this."

LCBO spokesman Chris Layton said the liquor agency is simply "rejigging" its formula so the government will continue making virtually the same amount of money from alcohol sales.

"So what the government has asked us to do is to adjust the mark-ups so essentially, any potential loss in revenue will be eliminated," Layton said.

He said final retail prices haven't been calculated, but will be a few cents more or less per bottle.

The government also has a "social responsibility" mandate that keeps it from lowering alcohol prices too much in order to discourage alcohol abuse, Layton said.

"That's always been a factor in beverage alcohol pricing in this province," Layton said.

Ed Madronich, president of Flat Rock Cellars Winery in Jordan, said if the government was to pass along the 4% savings to consumers, it would get less cash for government programs.

"They're saying we need to maintain that 4% and where we're going to do it is through the LCBO (mark-up) to make sure it remains revenue neutral," said Madronich, the chairman of the Wine Council of Ontario.

"You've got to remember all that money goes to education, health care, and all of those things. It was never the intent to lower the tax, right?"

Bristow said the HST will also rejig the sales tax formula for wine sold through private stores, including winery retail and off - site shops. But it won't impact the amount of profit wineries make from wine sales through these streams, he said.

"There will effectively be no change to the pricing structure of wine anywhere, minor if at all," Bristow said.

"There were certainly be no change to the contribution that the wineries get nor will there be a change to the contribution to what the government gets from the sale of the product."

The HST combines the 5% GST and 8% PST into one 13% tax.