Research On Taxing Sugary Food And Drinks

According to data released in 2020,the rate of overweight and obesity among Chinese adult has reached 50.7%,more than half of the adult is overweight or obese,with a growing trend.At the same time,the rate of overweight and obesity among children aged 6and over has reached 19%,with an average annual growth rate of about 3.75% in the past five years.Although there are many factors contributing to obesity,there is ample evidence showed that the increase in consumption of sugary foods and drinks is an important factor in the obesity epidemic,particularly consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage.Not only that,but heavy consumption of sugary foods also increases the risk of diseases such as type2 diabetes,cardiovascular disease,caries and osteoporosis.However,the existing policies to curb the consumption of sugary foods and drinks are very limited.The trend of sugary foods and drinks consumption also proves that the effectiveness of the relevant policies is not significant,failed to reverse the growth trend of sugary food and drinks consumption.Therefore,this thesis hopes to study the role of taxation in curbing the consumption of sugary food to improve the health of residents.The article is according to the research ideas from theory to the present situation and from the problem and cause to the suggestion.In theory,this thesis analyzes the necessity of levying sugary food and drinks excise tax based on externality theory and unhelpful product theory,and designs China’s sugary food and drinks excise tax with the theory of demand elasticity,tax burden transfer theory and modern tax principle.In practice,this thesis mainly learn from the experience of Mexico,Britain,South Africa and Thailand in the sugary food and drinks tax and the tax collection and administration to provide a realistic reference for China’s sugary food and drinks excise tax design.This article mainly answers three questions corresponding to different chapters.First,in chapter two,this article answers "Is it necessary to curb sugary food and drinks consumption through public policy?" Through the investigation of residents’ health status,production and consumption of sugary foods and existing means of sugar control,we know that the rate of overweight and obesity in China is close to the average of OECD countries,and the prevalence of diabetes,cardiovascular disease and caries is also on the rise.At the same time,China’s beverage market retail sales reached 84.855 billion liters,the average growth rate of the last six years is about 4.18%.Existing laws and regulations governing the consumption of sugary foods are limited to primary and secondary schools and child care institutions.There is a lack of strong measures to curb adult’s consumption of sugary foods and drinks.Based on the current situation and the negative externalities of sugary foods,this thesis considers it’s necessary to increase public policy to improve the health of residents.Second,in the third chapter,the metering model of "price-sugar drink consumption-health" is constructed to study whether taxation can effectively restrain the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage.And it proves that tax on sugar-sweetened beverage can help to curb the epidemic trend of obesity in China and reduce the risk of diabetes and related economic burden.Although imposing a new tax also need to consider other factors,but based on the beneficial impact of sugar-sweetened beverage tax on the health of residents,this thesis thinks that the system design of sugary food consumption tax should be studied in order to promote the development of this research field.In chapter five,this thesis proposes to add a new tax item of sugary food and drinks to current excise tax system.We can firstly tax on sugar-sweetened beverage,and set a progressive threelevel tax rate based on the sugar content per unit.The innovation of this thesis is mainly reflected in three aspects: First,the sugary food and drinks excise tax literature is rare in China.This thesis based on China,analysis the need for sugary food and drinks excise tax.Secondly,the current analysis of China’s sugary food and drinks excise tax does not further study its impact on the population’s weight and the prevalence of related diseases.This thesis will refer to the predictive analysis literature abroad to build a mathematical model to simulate the impact of sugary food consumption tax on residents’ health.Finally,there is not much research on the design of China’s sugary food and drinks excise tax system.This thesis will base on tax theory and the study of foreign systems,design China’s sugary food and drinks excise tax system.The shortcomings of this thesis mainly have the following three points: First,China’s residents sugary food and drinks consumption data is rare and lack of recent data,so this article’s measurement and analysis part exist lag;Second,whether to levy a consumption tax on sugary foods can not be judged solely by its effect on health and consumption,but the current data are very limited,it is difficult to analyze collect costs,tax burden,beverage industry chain’s response,beverage sugar content changes and other factors.Third,although this thesis combines abroad experience with China’s situation,the effect of implementing relevant policies may differ from theory because tax policy involves a wide range of issues.