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Showing posts from August, 2016

Tax on junk food but not on colas!

Kerala Finance Minister imposed tax on junk food but avoided colas. This was  amusing as colas are found to be worse than pizzas, burgers or other junk  foods. These taxes are not new at all. Known as soda tax or sugar tax , Mexico was one of the first to implement this at a large scale. Mexico is where we have the largest per capita  consumption of colas - nearly half a litre a day.  In the backdrop of Mr. Alejandro Calvillo's fight  against cola giants , Mexico imposed taxes on colas/sodas. Countries like Unite Kingdom  replicated this citing that such measures will reduce consumption  of unhealthy foods. Kerala is the latest in this list, but made a  half-hearted attempt, avoiding colas/sodas. For people who chased-off Coca  Cola from Plachimada, this was surprising. I would say our most popular street food "kappa & erachi" & "porotta" are  junk foods. Or the "parippu vada". Try imposing tax on them! Instead we  chose to impose t