Govt eyes tax on sodium ingredients in bid to reduce Thai consumption
Following the success of the sugar tax in reducing consumption by Thais, the Excise Department is now eyeing a tax on sodium ingredients in foods as doctors are concerned the current intake exceeds the safety level.
Excise Department director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas said his department was in the process of holding talks with groups of doctors and the Public Health Ministry on a possible sodium excise tax.
Ekniti said there is no sodium excise tax currently, but it would have to be freshly introduced after consultations with doctors and other agencies concerned.
He said the excise rate would be set based on doctors’ recommendation on the safe level of sodium consumption per person per day.
“From preliminary talks with doctors, it appears that a Thai person consumes on average 3,600 grams of sodium each day, which is far higher than the prescribed safe limit of 2,000 grams,” Ekniti said.
He said the sodium excise should prompt Thais to change their eating habits and eat less salty foods like how the sugar excise had prompted Thais to reduce consumption of soda drinks having high sugar content.
Ekniti said the excise tax on sodium would be enforced only on instant foods, but not on cooked street foods, as the department would have no way to control the sodium levels in cooked foods.
The department would start slapping sodium excise on mass-produced foods, such as instant noodles.
Ekniti said the sugar excise had led to lower production of soda drinks with high sugar content, compared to the period before the tax was levied.
The sugar excise was enforced in three phases: From September 16, 2017 to September 30, 2019; from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2021; the third phase was initially scheduled to start on October 1, 2021 but the Cabinet postponed it to April 1 this year.
Ekniti said when the department started collecting one baht excise on one litre of soda drinks containing 10-14 grams of sugar per 100 millilitre, the production of the high-sugar soda drinks was 2.993 billion litres per year.
He said when the tax was increased to 3 baht per litre at the beginning of phase three, the production of high-sugar soda drinks dropped to 728 million litres per year.
The department chief said the department has not set excise rates yet on sugar alternatives because it was still awaiting confirmation from the World Health Organisation on whether the alternatives were safe.
