from: CBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 4:26 PM ET
The French government is considering raising taxes on unhealthy foods to as much as 19.6 per cent, an official confirmed Wednesday.
No decision has been made, but an expert report advocating an increase in the current 5.5 per cent tax on sweet, salty and fatty foods was leaked to Les Echos newspaper on Tuesday.
An official confirmed the report was being discussed on Wednesday, and said it would be presented to legislators in September.
The extent of the tax and whether it will be implemented is not clear.
For example, it might be easier to impose if it applied to processed foods, but excluded French delights like brie cheese, éclairs and pâtés.
French senators suggested new nutritional taxes last year, but instead asked for the expert report from the government's social affairs and budget agencies.
Budget Minister Eric Woerth rejected the idea Wednesday, on financial grounds. He said it was "out of the question to raise sales taxes on food products," given the higher prices that have cut the population's purchasing power.
Links to other news about this topic:
http://www.flex-news-food.com/pages/18300/Food/France/new-french-report-calls-junk-food-tax.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601090&sid=abfOXUjwoHMo&refer=france
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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2 comments:
Interesting to see how history repeats itself. At the end of the nineties and beginning of the new millenium there was a discussion on VAT on fat in the context of cardiovascular diseases.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=10650031
And I want to add this interesting paper:
http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/61/8/689
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