South African Canegrowers call on Parliament to get sight of Treasury's sugar tax policy-making

Published 2023년 2월 20일

Tridge summary

South Africa's sugarcane industry body, SA Canegrowers, has called on the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance to oversee the National Treasury’s policy-making regarding the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), also known as the sugar tax. This follows the Treasury’s failure to explain the levy's continued implementation and proposed increase, as requested under the Access to Information Act. The sugar industry has been negatively impacted for five years, with the levy putting over one million livelihoods at risk, according to the body. The South African Sugar Association's data shows that the planned increase could cost the industry over 6,000 jobs and threaten nearly 3,000 small-scale growers. Additionally, the industry is already struggling with challenges such as loadshedding, inflation, and infrastructure deterioration.

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Original content

Sugarcane industry organisation SA Canegrowers has written to the chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance requesting oversight into the National Treasury’s policy-making regarding the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), which is also known as the sugar tax. The organisation says this request comes after the Treasury failed to respond to a request under the Promotion of Access to Information Act to provide the reasoning behind the ongoing implementation and the planned increase of the levy. The sugar industry has struggled for close to five years under the yoke of an unsubstantiated health intervention with no evidence whatsoever of its effectiveness. However, there is ample evidence regarding how the continued implementation of the levy threatens the future sustainability of the industry and the one-million livelihoods it supports, says SA Canegrowers chairperson Andrew Russell. "This request has also been made ahead of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivering his ...

Source: Engineeringnews