Essay About Sugar Tax And World Health Organization

Should a Sugar Tax Be Levied?
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Topic: Should a sugar tax be levied?Worldwide obesity has become more serious in the recent years. World Health Organization (WHO) (
Secondly, imposing a sugar tax might benefit Hong Kong’s economy. Hong Kong’s business environment has been well known because of its simple and low tax regime. Besides, a problem behind this fiscal advantage is an extremely narrow tax base. A sugar tax is assumed to be revenue generating. It is likely to widen the tax base and increase the government revenue. Brownell noted that “Taxes at the state level, as examples, would generate $139 million in Arkansas, $173 million in Oregon, $221 million in Alabama, $928 million in Florida, $937 million in New York, $1.2 billion in Texas, and $1.8 billion in California.”(2009) In reference to those examples, although Hong Kong has not implemented the sugar tax, it could be foreseen to bring economic benefit to Hong Kong. Additionally, the value of taxing SSBs lies not only the health gain but also the excessive revenue-raising potential. (Shin, as cited in Tsang, 2016) In short, imposing the sugar tax in Hong Kong is beneficial in term of increasing revenue. Furthermore, if a sugar tax were levied, the health care expenditure would be decreased. As mentioned before, a sugar tax is presumably to raise the public health, and hence the people using medical service might be declined. Then the government expenditure in public medical expenses could be lowered. The increase in revenue and the decrease in expenditure are conceivable to advance the society in the long term. “… the shift from taxing unhealthy products to gain revenue to a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. Revenues from taxes can be earmarked for health promotion purposes or contribute more broadly to health or social security spending,” according to WHO’s meeting report of the technical workshop mentioned in paragraph one. (World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific, 2016, p.14) In a nutshell, taxing on SSBs could benefit Hong Kong’s economy; in the long term, it could finally improve the public health.