10 reasons why the sugar tax is a terrible idea
It will hit Consumers: The tax is designed to be levied on soft drinks companies, based on the volume of sugar-sweetened drinks they import of export. But the independent economic forecaster, the Office of Budgetary Responsibility, states the costs of the levy will be ‘passed entirely onto the price paid by consumers’. That means it will be the public, not soft drinks companies that end up paying the costs of the new tax. It will actually cost the Treasury money: The levy is expected to raise a maximum of £520 million per year. However, because the levy pushes up inflation, the British Government will be hit with a £1 billion bill in 2018/19 because of increased costs of borrowing.
