Virus outbreak delays tax collection on high-salinity foods, non-alcoholic beers
The Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has delayed tax collection on products and foods with high salinity and non-alcoholic beer, since officials are concentrating on tackling the virus situation, Excise Department director-general Pachorn Ananta-silpa said.
For the tax on salinity, a late meeting considered the sodium consumption ceiling, and the Public Health Ministry specified that people should consume not more than 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day.
“Also, the meeting talked about the calculation of daily consumption of sodium per meal, in order to calculate the amount on a scale of product units,” Pachorn said.
Meanwhile, the meeting on non-alcoholic beer tax took into consideration the related definition and the proper tax rate, since academics said tax collection would increase the price of the non-alcoholic variety to the same rate as normal beers.
“We have given an assurance that the tax rate of non-alcoholic beers will be lower than the 28 per cent of normal beers and even lower than the 14 per cent tax on sugary drinks,” Pachorn said.
“We do not want the number of new consumers of non-alcoholic beers to increase, nor do we want them to consume normal beer as well,” he added.