‘Sugar tax’ pushes up price of a G&T
THE sugar tax was designed to tackle childhood obesity – but it will inadvertently push up the price of a humble gin and tonic for millions.
A levy on any soft drink with more than 5 grams of sugar per 100ml will come into force on Friday and the Government hopes it will raise £240million for sports in primary schools.
Energy drinks including Red Bull, Monster and Relentless will all increase in price, as will Coca-Cola.
But the price of a gin and tonic will rise by around 11p as pubs, bars and restaurants pass on the extra costs of the tonic water to punters.
Tim Martin, CEO of pub group JD Wetherspoon, said: “These sort of taxes harm pubs more than anyone else because a higher percentage of what they sell is drinks.”
Wetherspoon will raise the price of all sugary drinks by about 10p.
Tonic producer Fever-Tree said it would not change its recipe and would increase the bottle price from £1.69 to £1.80. But other drinks companies are reducing the size of bottles they sell.
A 1.75 litre bottle of Coca-Cola Classic, which has 10.6 grams of sugar per 100ml, will shrink to 1.5 litres and rise in price by 20p to £1.99.
The popular 500ml, often sold in shops and vending machines, will jump in price to £1.25 and multi-packs will be reduced from eight cans to six.
Gavin Partington of the British Soft Drinks Association said: “No one disputes that the tax has persuaded some companies to move further faster than they were perhaps planning to do, but the direction of travel was already set.”
Schweppes has reduced the amount of sugar in its tonic water, ginger ale and lemon so they fall just below the threshold for the sugar tax.
Fruit juice firm Cawston Press has swapped sugar for fresh fruit juice, which is exempt from the ban.
It said: “We’re putting more goodquality ingredients in and charging you more for more.”