Some people say that a special tax should be put on food and drinks with high levels of added sugar. Others disagree. Diacuss both views and give your own opinion

The effectiveness of

tax

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on food and beverages with high sugar content is debatable. Some people believe that imposing a special

tax

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can discourage unhealthy habits.

This

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essay will discuss both sides of the argument and provide reasons in favour of no

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on sugary drinks.

To begin

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with, the consumption of unhealthy foods has increased in the

last

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couple of years especially amongst younger children and the working population in their 20s. The most commonly purchased items in these age groups are sodas, energy drinks and chocolates. Adding a hefty

tax

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to these items can encourage people to reduce their consumption of junk foods.

However

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,

this

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market is very sticky i.e. the consumers' behaviour is habitual in nature and

thus

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very difficult to change.

Such

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behaviour is

also

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prevalent in cigarette smokers. For eg: In 2012,

although

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UAE imposed a 20% excise on packs of cigarettes, the number of packs sold did not decrease significantly. In fact, middle-class consumers switched to low-cost packs with more harmful content compositions. A similar trend was witnessed with the Energy Drink

Tax

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in Singapore. For

this

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reason, an additional

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may not be effective and

on the

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contrary

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,contrary

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could be harmful. To conclude, I think an excise

tax

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should not be the motivator to infuse healthy habits among the population. Education can play a very important role in creating awareness about ingredients and nutritional value.