Sugary drinks take bitter hit

SUNGAI BULOH: Those with sugar cravings will be hit in their pockets again, with a further hike to the sugar tax to be announced in Budget 2025, says the Health Minister.

Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said this followed the success in reducing sugar consumption by 9.25% nationwide after a 10sen increase in the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax under Budget 2024, to 50sen per litre.

He said the second tax hike is a step up of the ministry’s War on Sugar campaign to help contain non-communicable diseases among Malaysians.“We see that the SSB has been effective in cutting down sugar consumption in the country.

“With another increase in the tax, we hope to motivate more consumers and restaurants to be more conservative with sugar usage,” he told a press conference after the 20th anniversary celebration of the ministry’s training institute here yesterday.

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The training institute, initially a training college, produced over 23,295 graduates through its multiple programmes since its expansion in 2004 by integrating six colleges.

Dzulkefly said the second sugar tax hike is also aimed at complementing the ministry’s proposed introduction of a nutri-grade system for food and drinks, with an A to D grading given according to a product’s sugar content.

He said an A-grade product would contain no sugar or artificial sweetener, while those categorised as B-grade will contain a negligible amount of sugar.

Almost 3.6 million Malaysians, or one in six adults (15.6%), are diabetic based on the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2023 results, released in May this year.

On concerns of another pandemic due to mpox, Dzulkefly ruled out any national lockdown as practised during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.

He said the government would take all necessary measures to keep mpox out with strenuous health screening of international travellers entering the country, adding that over six million of them have been screened so far.

“Of these, 52 were suspected cases but they have since been cleared after tests showed negative results.

“There has not been a single positive case of mpox in the country,” Dzulkefly said, calling for calm as some neighbouring countries begin to register cases.