Mexico ruling party ready to back higher junk food tax - lawmaker

Demonstrators burn an effigy of Mexico's Finance Minister Luis Videgaray during a protest against the federal government's economic and tax reforms in Ciudad Juarez October 22, 2013. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is ready to support an opposition proposal to increase a planned tax on junk food included in the government's fiscal reform, the PRI's leader in the Senate said on Wednesday.

Last week, the lower house of Congress approved President Enrique Pena Nieto's fiscal reform, at the last minute adding a measure to impose a 5 percent tax on junk food. The Senate must approve the reform by the end of the month.