London: Britain will introduce sugar levy on soft drinks in two years’ time to tackle a growing obesity crisis, finance minister George Osborne said in a surprise announcement on Wednesday, delighting health campaigners and angering deink markers. Just months after the government ruled out a sugar tax, minister Osborne said the levy which would be imposed on companies and based on the sugar content in drinks would raise about $500 million annually. “I am not prepared to look back at my time here in this parliament doing this job and say to children ‘ s generation: I’ m sorry we knew there was a problem with sugary drinks,” Osborne told parliament. “We knew it caused disease . But we ducked the difficult decisions and we did nothing “ he said.
Britain joins France Belgium Hungary and Mexico which have imposed some for of tax on drinks with added sugar, while Scandinavian countries have levied similar taxes , with varying degrees of success, for man years. Shares in drinks group fell on the news with Britvic and AG Barr, which makes Irs Bru, down between 3% and 5%. Sweeten group Tate & Lyle was down 2%. Coca –Cola Co fell 1.3% in New Yrok.Britain’s Food and Drink Federation said Osborne’s tax was ‘ a piece of police theatre” that would make no difference said obesity fuelled rates of heart disease diabetes and other illnesses which cost the economy $27 billion a year and were a huge burden on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) “Five year-old children are consuming their body weight in sugar every year,” he said.
