The Excise Department says it is preparing a proposal to increase taxes on soft drinks with sugar contents exceeding the specified limit for the cabinet to approve.

Director-general of the Excise Department Somchai Poolsavasdi revealed yesterday that the department was finalizing a proposed amendment to Article 29 of Excise Law covering taxes for soft drinks, sugar-added green tea, juices, and energy drinks.

Under the new proposal, soft drinks would be taxed according to sugar content which is unprecedented in the country.

These would cover not only carbonated soft drinks and fruit juices but would also target energy drinks and green teas as well.

If approved, any drinks exceeding the maximum specified permissible sugar content would be slapped with higher taxes. Currently, the amount of taxes on soft drinks is at 20% of value.

The Excise Department has come up with 6 tax categories beginning with 10 satang/litre (0.1 Baht/litre) up to 1 Baht/litre.

For example, drinks with sugar contents between 0 – 6 grams per 100 millilitre will not be charged any taxes but 10 satang/litre (0.1 Baht/litre) will be charged for drinks with sugar contents of 6 – 8 grams per 100 millilitre. This goes up to 1 Baht/litre for drinks with 18 grams per 100 millilitre of sugar content.

(Source:-Thai PBS)