Sugar tax may not help
I doubt the consumption of sugar will go down with the implementation of a “sugar tax” on sugar-sweetened beverages. There will most probably be the usual excuse by businesses to increase the price of food and beverages instead.
Depending on how much the sugar tax is, the increase in price of such beverages might not be high enough to get people to consume less.
The problem is there is just too much sugar in the beverages. Take, for example, a 250ml packet of soymilk. According to the label, it contains 18g of sugar. One teaspoon of sugar is equivalent to 5g, which means that the soy drink has more than three teaspoonfuls of sugar.
The Health Ministry should instead look into regulating the sugar content of beverages and also food items. Even the sugar content of the all-time favourite teh tarik [pulled tea] can be regulated.
Enforcement can be done by making spot-checks on outlets and taking samples to measure the sugar content. In fact, if less sugar were used in food and beverages, the cost would be reduced. As a result, there would be no excuse to increase the price of foodstuff.
Lee Cheng Poh
Penang/The Star/ANN
