Sugar tax in force since July: the Government taxes sugary drinks

The government is postponing the introduction of the plastic tax until 2026. While the sugar tax - the tax on sugary soft drinks - will start from July 2024, but with reduced rates for the first two years. The two interventions were included in the amendment to the Superbonus decree which arrived last night. And the controversies are immediate.

«We confidently ask the Government to continue working to identify useful solutions for postponing purely ideological measures that are harmful to the country because they increase inflation, penalize citizens and undermine businesses during the peak production ahead of the summer season». With these words Giangiacomo Pierini, president of Assobibe, a Confindustria association that represents the producers of soft drinks in Italy, comments on the news of the entry into force of the tax.

«News which, moreover, contradicts what is indicated in the technical report» recalls the association. «Why increase the tax per liter of product to businesses and citizens by 14%, at a time when interest rates on mortgages are still high and the economy and growth are uncertain», declares Pierini. According to which «the effects of the tax on all links in the supply chain must be avoided, estimated by Nomisma in a contraction in sales (-16%), investments (-46 million), purchases of raw materials (-400 million), in addition to the resulting employment risks (-5 thousand jobs). As a sector since 2006 we have worked on our offer and on our marketing activities, but also through protocols with the Ministry of Health: we have cut sugar on the shelf by 41% in ten years without the need for taxes, we have adopted strict self-limitations in sales to the most fragile consumers such as children, we joined the Quarter without inflation and supported Nutrinform with the MmiT, convinced that penalizing a single ingredient as proposed by Nutriscore is absurd. The latter is a principle shared by the Government but in contradiction with the confirmation of the Sugar tax, as also stated yesterday by Federalimentare".