|
|
|
 
|
Tax On Soft Drinks |
|
| ◄ ◄ Return to Press Office | |
|
There was much debate yesterday about the Government’s proposal to place an additional tax on sugary soft drinks. Of course, price can play a role in people’s choices. But we believe that the Government would be making a far more useful and important contribution to leading the nation towards healthy life choices if it turned its attention to removing VAT from what is arguably one of the healthiest drinks available: bottled water. Whether from bottles or coolers, bottled water is delicious, calorie-free, tooth-kind, reliable and represents good value. We made a comment on behalf of British Bottled Water Producers and British Water Cooler Association about this which appears on the BBC website… http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile.shtml?userid=15595344 Apart from sending out the wrong messages to people about the health contribution water can make as part of a repertoire of drinks which may well include beverages and soft drinks consumed in moderation, VAT on bottled water also causes a detriment to the economy, further increasing the import gap. European competitors have an advantage over their British counterparts in that they are not liable to such high levels of value added taxation in their domestic markets. This allows them to subsidise the prices of the water they sell here and squeeze British producers out of the market. The net result is that rural employers struggle financially and the import gap increases. Article posted on: 30 January 2013 NOTES TO EDITORS: | |
| ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
