Durban: Sugarcane farmers from South Africa have welcomed the government’s decision of not hiking the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) which is alternatively referred to as the Sugar tax.
During his Budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni did not mention about the HPL on sugar beverages.
Kabelo Kgobisa, spokesperson, SA Canegrowers said that they had demanded to reduce the sugar tax. “We had demanded the socio-economic impact assessment study after implementation of a sugar tax and take decision based on it,” he said.
“As per the survey conducted after one year of implementation of the sugar tax, the sugar industry lost 9000 jobs from the sector. There should be a review about the impact of this tax on the sugar-sweetened beverage industry for similar losses,” he said.
