A survey from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) revealed that 58 per cent of 800 respondents supported the plan to impose an excise tax on sweetened beverages to control the country's sugar consumption and prevent rising diabetes in children. - Antara
JAKARTA: The government has once again delayed the implementation of the long-awaited excise tax on sweetened beverages despite growing demands to curb rising obesity and diabetes in the country.
During a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing finance on Wednesday (Aug 28), Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the government would implement the policy in 2025 instead of this year as initially targeted, but did not provide a specific reason for the delay.
"We will implement a sweetened beverages tax next year, in line with the Health Ministry goals to curb the prevalence of diabetes, particularly in children," she said as reported by Tempo.co.
Previously, the ministry's communication and guidance for customs service users director, Nirwala Dwi Heriyanto, said the delay in the excise implementation was due to the "unsupportive" economic situation at the moment.
"Even though we have included the taxes on sweetened drinks and plastic products in the 2025 state budget, we can't implement the excise for certain until the government issues a regulation on the tax," he said.
The Finance Ministry has been entertaining the idea of imposing a tax on sugary drinks since 2009 but progress has been sluggish, mainly because of resistance from business entities.
The taxes on sweetened drinks and plastic products were almost included in the 2023 state budget yet the implementation was cancelled, citing ongoing deliberations on legal avenues and considering the momentum of the country’s economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government subsequently said the sugary drinks and plastic product taxes would be introduced in the 2024 state budget, aiming to collect Rp 1.8 trillion (US$116 million) a year from the sweetened beverages tax alone, but it was postponed yet again.
The 2023 Indonesia Health Survey (SKI), recently issued by the Health Ministry, found that around 11.7 per cent of Indonesia's 270 million population suffered from diabetes. The figure increased by 3.2 per cent compared with 2018, when the Health Ministry recorded 8.5 per cent diabetes prevalence among the population. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
