PETALING JAYA: As a measure to prevent health risks, excise duty on sugary drinks has been raised from 40sen to 50sen per litre while a 5% excise duty will be imposed on chewing tobacco.
The 40sen excise duty was first introduced on sugary drinks in July 2019, targeting two categories of ready-to-drink packaged sweetened drinks which included carbonated drinks with added sugar or flavouring and other sweetening matter with sugar exceeding 5g per 100ml.
The move is part of the government’s effort to fight obesity and related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said while tabling Budget 2024 yesterday that apart from treatment, the government would utilise the revenue from the excise duties to develop dialysis centres.
Public health expert Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said it was disappointing that there was no increase in tax for smoking tobacco.
“(Taxing) chewing tobacco may not bring a big sum,” he said.
For one kilogramme of chewing tobacco, the excise duty imposed would be RM27.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Prof Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh said increasing excise duty for sugary drinks was timely and imposing excise duty on tobacco would deter people from consuming such products.
“Sugar is one of the causes of cancer, non-communicable diseases (NCD) and obesity.
“It causes addiction and most people consume sugar freely without thinking of its consequences.
“We need to bear in mind that many studies have shown that increment in tax actually caused the tobacco black market to flourish and people still sourced tobacco from the black market.
“The enforcement and deterrence must go hand-in-hand together with tax increment,” she said.
President of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz said while the increase in excise duty for sugary drinks was a step in the right direction to discourage sugar consumption, there needs to be transparency in the amount channelled towards the treatment of diabetes and support for dialysis.
“Apart from discouraging high sugar consumption, the government should also encourage healthy lifestyle behaviour through policies to comprehensively address the issue of increasing cases of NCDs among the population,” he said.
According to the “The Direct Health-Care Cost of Noncommunicable Diseases in Malaysia” report, the cost for primary care and outpatients for diabetes in 2017 was RM3.1bil.
