I wish the Treasury would be honest about its motives for introducing a sugar tax. If it can’t do that, I’d appreciate it if it could at least go to the trouble of finding evidence that supports its decision.When Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced in this year’s budget that the government would be introducing a tax on sugary drinks it came as somewhat of a surprise. Not because SA doesn’t have a serious problem with the rising rate of noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, but because no one realised that a sugar tax was even on the cards.If you ask the Treasury about the genesis of this tax, it will most likely point to the Department of Health’s National Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Obesity 2015-2020, in which a tax on foods high in sugar is identified as "a very cost-effective strategy to address diet-related disease".Sugar tax — Reprieve for a world that's getting fatter and fatterThis is all well and good except for the fact that this...
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