The World Health Organisation said
on 11 October, governments should raise taxes on sugary drinks to fight what it
says are global obesity and diabetes epidemics. If retail prices of
sugar-sweetened drinks are increased by 20% through taxation, there is a
proportional drop in consumption, it said in a report titled ‘Fiscal Policies
for Diet and Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases’. Obesity more than
doubled worldwide between 1980 and 2014, with 11% of men and 15% of women
classified as obese – more than 500 million people, the WHO said. And estimated
42 million children under age 5 were overweight or obese in 2015. This was an
increase of about 11 million over the past 15 years. Additionally, some 422
million adults across the world have diabetes. The WHO said there was
increasingly clear evidence that taxes and subsidies influence purchasing behavior,
and that this could be used to curb consumption of sugar sweetened drinks and hence
fight obesity and diabetes.
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