Sweetened beverages to be taxed further for the sake of public health: Health Minister

The Star

Another new tax that is being sold as part of the "War on Sugar" has been proposed for sweetened beverages, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.  The Health Minister said the new tax will be called the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax, and will be introduced in the upcoming Budget 2025.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/r53apwzw  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00We are campaigning to reduce sugar. One spoon is enough, half is better, there is no best.

00:14For example, I can mention that we have SSB tax that last January we have increased by 10 cents, 40 to 50 cents.

00:23And we are also waiting for a little bit more for the Minister of Finance to make a statement on the increase of SSB tax.

00:40So, it's a kind of a, not a syntax, but more or less, to get or to reduce the use of sugar.

00:53We don't need to know when we increase the SSB tax.

00:58Last year, in January, we got an evidence-based proof that the reduction was 9.9% to be exact.

01:09That shows the effectiveness of our program.

01:12Daniel, do you think that I forgot to mention about sugar?

01:15Yes, NHMS is the National Institute of Diabetes Research.

01:18Oh, that's okay. NHMS, we also, yes.

01:24Diabetes, to be honest, experienced a slight decrease in NHMS 2019 and NHMS 2023.

01:34Now, we are at 115 percent, 15.6, from 18, 19, close to 19.

01:47So, we are now 1 in 6 diabetic.

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