Colombia begins to tax sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods

Sweet drinks and ultra-processed foods They will be more expensive starting this Wednesday in Colombia with the entry into force of a tax that seeks to reduce the obesity in a country with a strong sugar industry.

The tax, approved by Congress at the end of 2022 and ratified by the Constitutional Court in October after a series of demands, will be 10% in 2023, in 2024 it will rise to a fifteen% and from 2025, at a twenty%.

“This is not to collect money from you, this is for you to choose healthy foods and improve the health status of the Colombian people”said President Gustavo Petro on his X account, formerly Twitter.

Products high in sodium and trans fats, such as sausages, chocolates and puffed cereals, are included in the measure, as well as sugary drinks whose consumption can cause obesity, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, such as soft drinks, processed juices and energy drinks.

After its approval in Congress, as part of a tax reform promoted by Petro, the so-called “healthy tax” He was the target of lawsuits by businessmen in the sugarcane industry, which has some 286,000 workers in Colombia, according to his own association.

But the Constitutional Court ruled this year that the tax “does not violate the principles of equality, economic freedom or free competition.”

In 2015, the 56% of Colombian adults between 18 and 64 years old had “over weight”, according to official figures. In children and adolescents it went from 4.1% in 1990 to 11.9% in 2016, according to the same source.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Office (FAO) warned in 2022 that “In the last 20 years, obesity has increased rapidly and continuously in Latin America and the Caribbean”going from a 16.6% in adults in 2000 to 24.2% in 2016.

Source: AFP