TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

RI mulls sugary drink tax to curb rise of diabetes, obesity

For 23-year-old creative worker Benediktus Andre Setyawan, going without sweet tea would be "strange, like something is missing”

Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, February 22, 2020

Share This Article

Change Size

RI mulls sugary drink tax to curb rise of diabetes, obesity

For 23-year-old creative worker Benediktus Andre Setyawan, going without sweet tea would be "strange, like something is missing”.

He attributed his sweet tooth to being brought up consuming powdered and condensed milk.

Almost every day, he buys himself a 350 milliliter bottle of iced tea that contains 20 grams of sugar. Though still below the Health Ministry's recommended daily sugar intake of 50 grams, he gets his fill from the coffee sachets he drinks at work.

"I feel like my habit of consuming sweet drinks is not dangerous, as I am quite physically active," Andre said on Thursday.

The government, however, wants people like Andre to think twice before buying sugary products amid growing concern over the rising prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the country, partly attributed to unhealthy diets.

With diabetes and obesity on rise in the past decade, a plan to slap excise duties on sweet drinks has been revived, with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati recently saying that Indonesia should follow other countries in enforcing such measures against the "dangerous goods".

"Diabetes is a very common disease that continues to become more prevalent as people's incomes also grow [...] In some countries, measures are taken to limit people’s sugar intake," she said during a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs on Wednesday.

Indonesia has experienced an increase in NCDs in recent years, with the prevalence of diabetes mellitus rising to 8.5 percent of the population in 2018 from 6.9 percent in 2013, according to the 2018 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) report. The report also revealed that the prevalence of obesity rose from 14.8 to 21.8 percent over the same period, affecting about one-fifth of all adults.

The government plans to impose excise taxes ranging from Rp 1,500 to Rp 2,500 per liter on sugar- and artificial sugar-sweetened beverages, such as bottled tea, coffee, carbonated soft drinks and energy drinks. Based on the ministry's estimation, the government is likely to receive Rp 6.25 trillion from imposing the duties.

The excise on sweet drinks is one of the three planned excise duties proposed by the ministry to the House for approval, with the other two being on plastic and fossil fuel vehicles. The plan will affect the country's beverage market, which had been tipped to see 8.1 percent growth by market research portal Statista.

If approved by the House, Indonesia will follow the lead of 39 other countries that have placed taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, according to 2019 data collected by the Global Food Research Program. The countries include Indonesia’s neighbors the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei.

Nutrition expert from the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Soekirman said increasing the prices of sweet drinks had proven effective at reducing their consumption in several countries.

Mexico's 1 peso per liter excise tax on sugary beverages, introduced in 2014, led to an estimated 7.6 percent reduction in the consumption of such beverages by 2015, according to a 2017 study by researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health and the University of North Carolina in the United States.

Indonesia needed to implement the tax as the rising prevalence of diabetes and obesity "was worrying", Soekirman said.

Intervention in people's consumption habits was necessary given the shift away from traditional diets to modern diets, he said. Modern diets had become increasingly affordable and attractive for lower-income people thanks to advanced processing technology and marketing tactics, he added.

However, public health expert from the University of Indonesia Hasbullah Thabrany expressed doubts the excise plan would reduce obesity and diabetes cases given that people could easily satisfy their sugar cravings in other ways.

"It is important that [people's] diets and physical activity are improved," he said.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.