The announcement has already had an effect on sugary drinks companies, with stocks of Britvic, Tate & Lyle and Barr all falling.
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Britain will introduce a sugar levy on soft drinks in two years’ time to tackle a growing obesity crisis.
“All the evidence shows that sugar is damaging the health of New Zealand children and is driving our obesity epidemic”.
The Conservative party was previously hesitant to introduce a levy on drinks with added sugar. “A sugar levy on sugary sweetened drinks…”, Oliver wrote.
The Chancellor said companies would have to decide whether to pass on the cost to consumers but if they did that would help reduce sales of high-sugar drinks.
The tax on soft drinks with excessive sugar was the big new announcement in the Chancellor’s Budget yesterday expected to raise £520m a year.
Examples of drinks which would now fall under the higher rate of the charge include full-strength Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Old Jamaica Ginger Beer, Capri Sun blackcurrant, Red Bull, Strawberry Ribena, Lucozade Energy, Irn-Bru and Fever-Tree tonic water, said the UK’s Treasury. Escaping the tax altogether would be drinks like Volvic Touch of Fruit, Vimto, Powerade and Tropicana Smooth Orange. Osborne said the United Kingdom would be “safer, stronger and more secure” if it remained in the European Union, quoting the “Economic and Fiscal Outlook” report published Wednesday afternoon by independent government statistics body the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR). “We will not burden our children and grandchildren”, he said.
The top rate will affect some of the world’s most popular sodas, including Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, Pepsi Cola, Mountain Dew, 7-UP and others.
“So they can reformulate, they can reduce portion sizes and they can promote diet products”.
Nicola Plant, a partner at law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore, based in Dartford and Tunbridge Wells, said: “The Chancellor’s decision to cut capital gains tax rates by 8% on all but residential property and carried interest is a clear indication of the government’s wish to discourage future speculation in the buy-to-let market, halting continued growth in prices in that sector and potentially freeing up more properties for first-time buyers”. The money will go towards increasing funding for sport in primary schools.
No – other countries have experimented with sugar taxes.
But parents are split over the new tax.
The deteriorating growth prospects and lower-than-forecast tax revenue have limited his options, but he was able to announce an increase in the starting point for the higher 40-per-cent rate of income tax to £45,000 a year in 2017-18, compared with the current level of £42,385.
“This is a budget which gets rid of loopholes for multinationals and gets rid of tax for small businesses”, Mr. Osborne said.
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The Department of Health will set out it’s childhood obesity strategy in the summer.
