Abstract:
It is widely thought that governments should impose a tax on sugary drinks as a means of combating the obesity epidemic. Most recently, on 11 October 2016 (World Obesity Day), the World Health Organisation published a report called Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Non- communicable Diseases, in which it recommended that gov- ernments should introduce such taxes. Several countries have already done so — most notably, perhaps, Mexico. The British and Portuguese Governments, too, have announced that they plan to introduce a tax on soft drinks within the next year or two. The aim of this article is to examine the idea of taxing sugary drinks and in particular to attempt to answer two questions. First, would it be a good idea to tax sugary drinks? Secondly, if so, how should we go about it? More specifically, who, exactly, should be required to pay? What, exactly, should be taxable? And what should be the rate of tax?