A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Commerce (Specialising in Taxation) / Obesity and overweight caused by overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (‘SSBs’)
are a problem in South Africa, as in most countries. It was for this reason that the Minister of
Finance announced in the February 2016 Budget a decision to introduce a tax on SSBs with
effect from 1 April 2017 to help reduce excessive sugar intake and tackle non-communicable
diseases. Previously, South Africa had introduced similar legislation but abolished it in April
2002 after a nine-year period (BDO, 2012.) In order to determine the impact of the sugar tax in
South Africa, the sugar tax was compared to similar taxes implemented in other tax
jurisdictions, namely, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Denmark,
and also to other similar taxes levied in South Africa. The question which the research
addressed is whether a sugar tax could be used as a tool to decrease the rising rate of obesity
in South Africa and therefore to improve the general health of South Africans (effective tax).
The tax on SSBs may have its shortcomings but, depending upon the administrative and
support structures put in place to deal with it, it will be an effective tax. In other words, the
introduction of a sugar tax should reduce overweight and obesity. / GR2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24366 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mahode, Ndivheni David |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (62 leaves), application/pdf |
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