AMMAN: Singling out the soft drinks industry for the new sugar tax is “unjustified”, an industry group has said, citing a large drop in the number of teenagers consuming such products daily.
The Irish Beverage Council (IBC), a division of business group Ibec, noted a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report that showed an almost 68 per cent reduction in the number of 11-15 year-olds drinking sugar-sweetened drinks from 2002 to 2014.
The new tax is due to come into effect in April 2018 with the Government likely to outline the details in the October budget.
The overall percentage of teens consuming these products every day was 37 per cent in 2002 but had fallen to 11.1 per cent three years ago, according to the WHO report.
In its May report on adolescent obesity and related behaviours, the world body said daily consumption of sugary soft drinks and sweets decreased noticeably, but that consumption remained high.
“Almost one in five (19 per cent) adolescents drinks sugary soft drinks daily and one in four eats sweets every day,” it noted.
Overall, daily soft drinks consumption reported by adolescents across 32 European countries and regions decreased from 29 per cent to 18 per cent during the period.
Young people from more affluent families were less likely to drink sugared soft drinks every day than those with lower affluence, but this was not consistent across all countries and regions.
A decline was observed in almost all countries and regions and among boys and girls, but no significant change in consumption over time was seen for either gender in France and Luxembourg, for girls in Belgium (French), Malta and Poland, and for boys in Hungary and Lithuania.
Those with the greatest overall decreases (greater than 20 percentage points) were Ireland, Israel, Slovenia, England and Scotland.
