{"id":292702,"date":"2025-04-28T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/28\/sugar-tax-government-plans-to-extend-levy-to-milkshakes\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T22:02:07","slug":"sugar-tax-government-plans-to-extend-levy-to-milkshakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/28\/sugar-tax-government-plans-to-extend-levy-to-milkshakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sugar tax: Government plans to extend levy to milkshakes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sugar<\/div>


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The sugar tax applied to fizzy drinks is set to be extended to milkshakes and other milk-based drinks under new government plans.<\/p>\n

The government is consulting on proposals<\/a> to end the exemption from the tax for dairy-based drinks, as well as non-dairy substitutes such as oats or rice.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her autumn budget last year that the government was considering widening the levy.<\/p>\n

The so-called sugar tax, known formally as the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL), applies to manufacturers and was introduced by the Conservative government in April 2018 as a means to tackle obesity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Monday, the Treasury also confirmed proposals to reduce the maximum amount of sugar allowed in drinks before they become subject to the levy from 5g to 4g per 100ml.<\/p>\n

Some 203 pre-packed milk-based drinks on the market, which make up 93% of sales within the category, will be hit with the tax unless their sugar content is reduced in accordance with the proposals, government analysis says.<\/p>\n

The exemption for milk-based drinks was included because of concerns about calcium consumption, particularly among children.<\/p>\n

The Treasury said that young people only get 3.5% of their calcium intake from such drinks, meaning “it is also likely that the health benefits do not justify the harms from excess sugar”.<\/p>\n

“By bringing milk-based drinks and milk substitute drinks into the SDIL, the government would introduce a tax incentive for manufacturers of these drinks to build on existing progress and further reduce sugar in their recipes,” the Treasury said.<\/p>\n

The government estimates that 89% of soft drinks sold in the UK are not subject to the tax because of widespread reformulation by manufacturers since 2018.<\/p>\n

But it added that the levy had effectively created a “target” of just below the 5g threshold, and products had clustered below 5g as a result.<\/p>\n

The government consultation will run from Monday until 21 July.<\/p>\n

The SDIL has raised a total of \u00a31.9 billion since its introduction in 2018, according to government statistics released last September. Revenue for HMRC for the 2023-24 financial year was \u00a3338 million.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the levy in recent years include the soft drinks industry, pubs and off licences. Some argue the levy disproportionately affects lower-income families and does little to tackle obesity.<\/p>\n

On the latest plans, industry body the Food and Drink Federation said it welcomed the chance to share its views in the consultation. <\/p>\n

It said “significant progress” had already been made and “many years of investment in research and development” had reduced sugar in soft drinks by 46% in the last five years, with a 30% sugar reduction in pre-packed milk-based drinks in the last three years.<\/p>\n

It added that food and drink manufacturers were facing a series of inflationary pressures and called on the government to “continue to create the right conditions for businesses to innovate and also be clear about their long-term goals to promote business confidence”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sugar tax applied to fizzy drinks is set to be extended to milkshakes and other milk-based drinks under new government plans. The government is consulting on proposals to end the exemption from the tax for dairy-based drinks, as well as non-dairy substitutes such as oats or rice. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her autumn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/3262\/live\/8c89a8c0-2479-11f0-9d36-b3958decd481.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[12912,3954,2365,227691,1925,6730,301],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292704,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292702\/revisions\/292704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}