Sugar tax brings in US$18m

Farirai Machivenyika

Senior Reporter

The sugar tax on beverages introduced through this year’s national Budget to fund the procurement of cancer drugs and equipment, is already bringing in the money with ZiG248,9 million (about US$18 million) collected so far, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said last week.

Responding to questions by Emakhendeni-Luveve legislator Descent Bajila in the National Assembly he said the special tax on the sugar content of beverages for the first quarter amounted to ZiG7,9 million ZiG, with cumulative collections to date amounting to ZiG248,9 million, equivalent to about US$18 million, said Prof Ncube.

“Treasury is in the process of working on modalities to join in with the Ministry of Health and Child Care for the procurement of cancer machines and drugs and distribution in our hospitals. We are working speedily with the Ministry of Health and Child Care through the procurement processes so that we can acquire these machines and drugs as soon as possible.

“I think I will be very happy, at least on the day that we receive the first machine as a beneficiary from this fund, to invite relevant Members of this House to come and witness the installation of these machines in one or two of our hospitals. We are working speedily, I can assure you.”

Surtax on the sugar content in beverages was initially set at US$0,002 per gramme of sugar in the beverage, but was later halved, following concerns raised by producers and retailers. Health experts around the world are concerned with the vast amount of extra sugar fed into people’s diets from bottled beverages.

Cases of cancer have been on the rise in Zimbabwe. The most common types of cancers are prostate cancer for men and cervical cancer for women.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development is crafting a corporate social responsibility policy to compel mining companies to come up with programmes that benefit local communities in areas where they operate before they are issued with licences, Deputy Mines and Mining Development Minister, Polite Kambamura told the National Assembly.