Sugary drinks increase a series of endocrine and cardiovascular diseases - Illustration: FREEPIK
According to statistics from Euromonitor (a British market research group), the consumption of sugary drinks in Vietnam is increasing rapidly. This causes major concerns about public health.
Vietnamese people drink 6.67 billion liters of sugary drinks
Specifically, from 2009 to 2023, sugary beverage consumption has quadrupled, with total consumption increasing from 3.44 billion liters in 2013 to 6.67 billion liters in 2023, nearly doubling within a decade. On a per capita basis, consumption has increased by 350%, from 18.5 liters/person/year to 66.5 liters/person/year, equivalent to about 1.3 liters per person per week.
In 2023, each Vietnamese person will consume an average of 66 liters of sugary drinks, equivalent to 18g of sugar per day from these drinks (assuming each liter of sugary drink contains 100g of sugar).
Meanwhile, this amount of sugar accounts for 36% of the maximum recommended level of the World Health Organization (WHO) for adults (less than 50g of sugar/person/day), showing the potential health risks of excessive sugar consumption.
Euromonitor forecasts that without effective control measures, sugary beverage consumption in Vietnam will continue to increase by an average of 6.4% per year from 2023 to 2028, equivalent to a total increase of 36.6% over the next 5 years, increasing the risk of non-communicable diseases such as overweight, obesity and diabetes.
Not only in Vietnam, research in 75 countries around the world also shows that for every 1% increase in sugary drink consumption, there are 4.8% more overweight adults, 2.3% more obese adults and 0.3% more people with diabetes.
Consuming sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of obesity by 18%, increases the risk of high blood pressure by 12%, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 29%, and increases the risk of metabolic syndrome by 29%.
The World Health Organization has concluded that regular consumption of sugary drinks increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, tooth decay, osteoporosis, and overweight and obesity, and potentially leads to an increased risk of other non-communicable diseases, including cancer.
It's time to tax sugary drinks
On May 9, at the discussion session at the National Assembly regarding the content of adding sugary soft drinks (soft drinks) with more than 5g/100ml to the special consumption tax, many opinions were received from delegates. During this discussion session, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang expressed the view that tax on soft drinks should have been imposed earlier and that it was too late now.
For this item, the National Assembly Standing Committee proposed to amend the bill in the direction of stipulating a roadmap to apply an 8% tax rate from 2027 and a 10% tax rate from 2028.
He also said there are very clear grounds to consider imposing a special consumption tax on soft drinks with sugar content of more than 5g/100ml. The World Health Organization recommends that Vietnam is one of the countries with an increasing consumption of sugary soft drinks, leading to the risk of obesity.
The Minister of Finance also said that up to now, 107 countries have imposed special consumption tax on this item, and in ASEAN, 7/11 countries have imposed tax.
“From the world’s experience and the current situation in Vietnam, I personally think that we should have imposed taxes earlier, but now we are too late. We cannot wait until our children are obese or sick before we discuss this,” said Mr. Thang.
According to the minister, the tax rate has been accepted in the direction of extending the application period and the roadmap for 2027 is 8% and 2028 is 10%. The drafting agency will review to see what will be applied from January 1, 2026 and which items will be postponed to 2027, to avoid shock to businesses.
On the side of the Ministry of Health, this unit agreed with the expected plan to accept the draft Law on Special Consumption Tax as proposed by the Ministry of Finance, accordingly, the special consumption tax rate for this item can be extended in terms of application time and roadmap to 8% from 2027 and 10% from 2028.
WHO recommends that Vietnam should soon impose a tax on sugary drinks to reduce consumption and protect people's health.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cham-ap-thue-do-uong-co-duong-co-the-tra-gia-bang-suc-khoe-cua-mot-the-he-2025060108580878.htm
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