Big soda tax coming up in Philadelphia
The movement towards taxing and regulating sugary drinks continues. Now Philadelphia could be the second city in the US to introduce a soda tax, after Berkeley. And it’s a big tax:
Philly.com: Kenney: Soda tax would fund $400M in projects
Earlier
Sugary Drinks Banned From Hospitals in New Zealand
South Africa Will Start Taxing Soda
Soda Companies Targeting Young People in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Says Report
To me this is like taxing cigarettes but not roll your own tobacco. You are either taxing sugar in beverages or you're not. Seems this selective practice is targeted at a sub group of companies that are seen as evil and are easy targets
The free-market fanboys should like this one, no?
http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/sen/committee/421/SOCI/Reports/2016-02-...
The government should:
- Consider a tax on sugar- and artificially-sweetened drinks;
- Implement effective tax levers to encourage healthy lifestyles; and
- Ban the advertising of food and beverages to children.
The mayor of Philly is not in the position to correct subsidized sugar production. That is a national issue best taken up by congress. Because they haven't acted, it's up to localities to step up.
Estonian Food Industry Association http://www.toiduliit.ee/ is against the sugar tax, because "basicly every food produced includes sugar". I would say consumer does not want to pay this tax for the sugar we actually do not want in our food.
The Association also refers to EU court decision about the sugar tax in Finland (and this in this context is totally misleading) as the decision was about unfair tax on ice-cream and candy comparing to other products with similar sugar content.
To conclude, it feels Estonia wants sugar tax to increase tax revenue (and because some EU countries already have sugar tax), not to decrease obesity. The tax should discourage industry to reduce sugar in our food not to enforce us to buy more expensive food with sugar intake.
Expose the hypocrisy before victimizing the victims again. Tell people the truth before victimizing the victims again. Stop subsidizing big sugar and big Ag and big pharma before victimizing the victims again.