ALL SOUTH Africans should be concerned about the sugar taxes proposed in the budget. The public health benefits of such a move are not at all clear. In fact, the evidence is contradictory.Against a context of rising administered prices such a tax will further depress the economic standing of households, with knock-on effects for overall levels of consumer spending and growth. Such taxes further have the potential to bring disproportionate hardship to poor households, which spend a greater proportion of their income on foodstuffs than wealthier households.Food price inflation is a driver of violent protest action and the proposed new tax, introduced in one of the driest years on record, will have a measurable inflationary effect.The government should hold off on the tax and at the very least conduct fresh case studies of potential job losses in the sugar and beverage industries, with an assessment of the tax’s likely effect on households, before any final decision is taken.SA must al...
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