Super-sweet drinks that won’t be hit by sugar tax

THE new sugar tax was labelled a farce yesterday as it emerged that many super-sweet drinks will not be hit by the levy.

Beverages such as costa’s chai latte and galaxy thick shake will escape george Osborne’s tariff because drinks containing milk are exempt.

With 10.6g of sugar per 100millili-tres, coca-cola will be subject to the tax, which is due to come in from april 2018.

But a Starbucks signature hot chocolate with whipped cream and coconut milk, which has 11g per 100ml, will not.

Similarly, energy drinks such as Monster Origin, with 11g per 100ml, will be taxed, but tesco chocolate flavoured milk will not be affected, even though it has 12.4g per 100ml.

in his Budget in March, the chan-cellor announced the levy on sug-ary water-based drinks, which will raise around £520million a year.

But the Taxpayers’ alliance claims it will have ‘little impact on sugar intake’ because of the exemp-tion for sweet milky drinks.

the campaign group says the ‘ill thought-out’ tax will hit the poor-est hardest. in a statement, it added: ‘the government must abandon this pernicious tax.’

it compared 49 drinks in three groups – regular fizzy drinks as well as sports and energy versions, milk- based drinks, and coffees. the first group would be taxed under the scheme, while the second and third groups – which included 29 high-sugar drinks – would not.

in fact, the ten most sugary drinks it analysed will not be taxed.

chief executive Jonathan isaby said: ‘it is deeply concerning that the government has given in to the pressures from the public health lobby and is pushing ahead with this regressive tax.

‘the evidence shows that the sugar tax has nothing to do with the sugar content of products, so it is farcical to suggest this will have any positive impact on people’s diet.

‘this is yet another example of irresponsible meddling from the high priests of the nanny state, introducing entirely unnecessary complications into an already com-plicated tax system.’

it is expected that the levy will have two rates – 18p per litre and 24p – according to sugar content.

the extra costs are expected to be passed on to the consumer – some-thing the treasury says should not happen. a treasury spokesman said: ‘treating obesity and its con-sequences costs the taxpayer £5.1billion every year.

‘experts agree there is a problem with sugar-laden fizzy drinks.

‘the money from the levy will go towards funding school sport, and expanding school breakfast clubs.’

‘Irresponsible meddling’