The lobbyists fear that consumption will drop, pulling down production and threatening jobs and investment, especially for small breweries that do not have the international flexibility of European giants like Heineken or Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The French beer industry represents two billion euros in sales, or about $2.6 billion, and more than 71,000 jobs, according to the Brewers of France, a lobby that represents 80 percent of the industry. It says that 70 percent of the beer consumed in France is brewed domestically.

Laurent Lutse, president of the cafe, bar and nightclub branch of France’s main food and hotel union, said that beer represents 25 percent of sales in 80,000 member companies and worried that a tax increase would accelerate the decline of such establishments. “In France in 1960 there were still 200,000 bistros,” Mr. Lutse said. “There are fewer than 35,000 left, which means there are fewer bistros than there are church towers.”

Despite the complaints, the tax increase is expected to pass in the Socialist-dominated National Assembly.

Many opponents of the bill suggested that wine was exempted because the industry has greater political clout, given that it is one of the country’s top three exporters and employs 250,000 people. Wine is currently taxed around the same rate as beer, per hectoliter, but unlike the rates for beer, its rates do not increase with the degrees of alcohol.

The government also offers a public health rationale for the beer tax. There has been an “excessive alcoholization, in particular of youth, with beer more than with wine,” said Jérôme Cahuzac, the budget minister. French beer taxes are among the lowest in the 27-state European Union, he noted, and the scheduled increase would leave them only the 10th highest, lower than in Britain, Spain and the Netherlands.

This argument does not sit well with the opposition. “Our attitude shouldn’t be to try and catch up with countries that have higher taxes,” said Véronique Louwagie, a center-right assembly member from Normandy.