THE Philippines is pursuing plans to tax junk food and hike levies on sweetened beverages to boost revenue and reduce incidence of diabetes, obesity and other diseases linked to poor diet.

The Department of Finance is planning to impose a tax of 10 pesos (S$0.24) per 100 grams or 10 pesos per 100 millilitres on pre-packaged food lacking nutritional value, including snacks, desserts, and frozen confectioneries, that exceed the Department of Health’s specified thresholds for fat, salt and sugar content, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in a mobile-phone message to reporters.

The government also aims to increase the sweetened beverage tax rate under an existing tax law to 12 pesos per litre, regardless of the type of sweetener used, he said. This tax rate will be indexed annually by 4 per cent and will remove exemptions to broaden the tax base and discourage consumption of such beverages.

The taxes on junk food and sweetened beverages are forecast to generate 76 billion pesos in additional revenue during the first year, said Diokno, adding it should result in a 21 per cent drop in junk food consumption.

Around 27 million Filipinos, or nearly a quarter of the country’s population, are considered overweight or obese, based on a recent survey by its Food and Nutrition Research Institute. Meanwhile, diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death in the South-east Asian nation, according to a September 2022 report by the Philippine Statistics Authority. BLOOMBERG