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Sugar tax bill ready for 2018

RANDBURG – A new tax in a bid to decrease consumption of sugary drinks.

There’s good news and bad news … a sugar tax will be introduced next year.

A decision for the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment Revenue Laws Bill to proceed to the National Assembly was made by the Standing Committee on Finance on 7 November.

The bill provides, in general terms, for a Health Promotion Levy, and a schedule to the bill specifies that this will take the form of a tax on sugary beverages.

Treasury has stated that it plans to introduce the tax in April next year.

Spokesperson for the Healthy Living Alliance, Tracey Malawana commented, “We are confident that members of parliament will put the health of the millions of people who elected them before the narrow interests of the beverage and sugar industries and pass the bill as it stands.”

South Africans are among the top 10 consumers of soft drinks in the world and research has shown that drinking just one sugary fizzy drink a day increases the chances of being overweight by 27 per cent for adults and 55 per cent for children.

Dr Ferosa Motara, from Wits, praised the new bill and said, “Sugary drinks are a major cause of increased calorie intake, weight gain, diabetes, hypertension and other diseases.

“The tax on sugary drinks is a powerful but simple way to discourage consumption of one of the strongest drivers of obesity, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases… and of course tooth decay.”

Heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other obesity-related diseases account for about 55 per cent of deaths in South Africa.

Diabetes alone claimed more than 25 000 lives in 2015, according to Statistics SA, and some 10 000 new cases are diagnosed at public health facilities every month.

Malawana said, “People expect leadership and positive action from the government when it comes to matters of health.

“We recently asked the research company Genesis Analytics to do a survey on public attitudes to the sugar tax and it showed that seven out of 10 South Africans supported the tax, provided that the revenue was used for programmes to benefit the public.”

She called on parliamentarians to ensure that they had laid the statutory foundation for the Health Promotion Levy before the festive season.

“Many opinion leaders have complained that the sugary drinks tax is not enough to overcome the obesity epidemic – and we agree with you. It is only a start – but a critical, indispensable start. And we have more than a few ideas to share in future on additional policy measures to carry South Africa further along the road to better health,” concluded Malawana.

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