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Ministry to require sugar content labels on beverages
Indonesia is expected to implement sweetened drink tax this year.
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Drawing on lessons from campaigns to fight tobacco, the WHO says taxing sugary drinks could help reduce the consumption of sugar, bringing health benefits and more income for governments. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Health Ministry will require companies to put sugar content on the labels of any beverage products sold in the country.
The ministry said it was looking to implement similar systems to those in other countries, but it has yet to specify the details.
“The system may resemble Singapore’s,” ministry spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi said on Friday, as quoted from Tirto.id.
The government is also expected to impose a sweetened drink tax this year, aiming to collect Rp 4.3 trillion (US$275.5 million) in revenue.
Last year, the government made an attempt to implement the policy with a target of collecting Rp 3.08 trillion of revenue but then backtracked by revising the target to zero in November.
In January, Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono signaled that the ministry had finalized the implementing regulation on the sweetened drink tax and it could implement it as soon as it was ready.
Read also: Plastic, sweet beverage excise to cause more problems than it solves: Businesses
