MILAN (ITALPRESS) – The sugar tax is “a sword of Damocle” that weighs on the field of soft drinks and brakes investments. Giangiacomo Pierini, president of Assobibe, interviewed by Claudio Brachino for the television magazine Italpress Economy. “Businesses tell me that today they have about 1 billion euros remaining on the accounts waiting to be invested”, precisely because of fiscal uncertainty, Pierini points out.
“A tax is of itself a negative element before even producing its effects, because it necessarily limits investments,” the president explains. Knowing that an increase in tax rate of 28% per liter of drink, he adds, puts the entrepreneur in a defense position. The postponement of six months, he notes, “is a geological era for politics, but for enterprises it is after tomorrow”.
Pierini recalls that the sector already faces high costs: energy, transport, logistics and raw materials. In addition, the obligation, provided for by the European Single Use Plastics Directive, to employ 25% recycled plastic, which costs 60% more than that virgin. In this context, he stressed, it is difficult to think that companies can also absorb the new tax: the increase in list prices would be inevitable, with falls on the shopping cart.
The President disputes the same nature of the tribute. “It’s called sugar tax, but it’s not a sugar tax: it affects any non-alcoholic sweet product, even without sugar,” he explains. In this way, reduced or zero sugar products are penalised, whose market share is growing because consumers are oriented in that direction.
As for effectiveness, Pierini cited a study conducted by Assobibe in the countries that introduced the measure: “The percentage of those in which a reduction in obesity rates after the tax is zero.” In addition, Italy is the European country with the lowest consumption of soft drinks, equal to half of the EU average, while in other states you get to triple.
“We understand the moment of difficulty and the problems that the government faces,” says Pierini, “but introducing sugar tax in six months would be a serious problem.” The request is to postpone the tax at least one year. Assobibe has long asked for the repeal, but a postponement, explains the President, would allow enterprises to plan and free investments.
On the commercial front the picture remains positive, says Pierini, with an increase of 130% export in the last three years. Assobibe represents over 100 production plants, and 65% of the associates are composed of SMEs. The sector enhances the territorial specificities: cold Calabrian coffee, foam, chinotti, cedarrate, orangete and lemonade, made with raw materials such as Sicilian oranges, Campania lemons and chinotti of Liguria and Calabria. In the United States, some producers have suffered duties, but the quality, says Assobibe’s president, continues to reward sales.
– Photo Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
