LAre sugary drinks soon going to cost more? As the Senate began the fourth day of debate on the Social Security financing bill on Thursday, November 21, an increase in the “soda tax” was adopted. This article 9 bis had initially been inserted into the discussions on the budget in the Assembly, via an amendment from the MoDem deputy Cyrille Isaac-Sibille and the socialist Jérôme Guedj. It was kept by the government in the version sent to the Upper House of Parliament.
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In particular, it plans to review the amounts of taxation on sugary drinks, introduced in 2012. The senators went further than their counterparts in the National Assembly by strengthening the scales. Below five kilos of added sugar, manufacturers will have to pay 4 euros per hectoliter, compared to 3.79 euros on average currently.
Beyond eight kilos, the tax will be multiplied by two: 35 euros per hectoliter, compared to 17.70 euros according to the rate in force today. But it is for the intermediate rate that the bill is likely to be the heaviest. Between five and eight kilos of sugar per hectoliter, the price will increase from 7.30 to 21 euros. This includes colas, fruit drinks made from cocoa, coffee, tea or syrup, lemonades, tonics or certain drinks made from animal or vegetable milk.
A tax beneficial to health?
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Kangaroo of the day
Answer
“I think we have a very worrying epidemic of type 2 diabetes and obesity, with a cost for Health Insurance. The “soda tax” should not have been removed, we need this marker because soda is cubes of sugar in a large glass. We really need to regulate this,” defended the Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, who recently announced the reduction in healthcare reimbursements.
This tax, already increased in 2018, brought the State 443 million euros in 2023. Some senators defended the possibility of extending it to all agri-food products containing added sugar. For the moment, the minister is refusing to do so, at the risk, according to her, of causing side effects. According to an Inrae study dated December 2023, a tax of 20 cents per liter on sugary drinks, a source of addiction, would have notable effects. It would prevent 640 deaths over the course of a year.
