I have been reading again about the proposed sugar tax that the government says it wants to introduce next year. The whole idea of a sugar tax leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
The tax is proposed to be levied on sugared beverages.
The beverage guys, and others, have pointed out that they think it is a bad idea, because such a tax will result in job losses.
I think that this is probably true; it just has to affect both the smaller and also larger traders. The smaller traders may go out of business, and the larger ones may reduce staff, but I don’t want to pursue that line.
I have other gripes about the sugar tax. The government should not introduce the tax. It is not the government’s job to regulate the health of people; and using tax to achieve this objective is not the way to do it, even if it were the correct thing to do.
It is not the government’s job to tell me, or anyone else, how to live our lives. They say that the sugar tax is aimed at cutting obesity, “which is in your interest”, they say. So to achieve this objective they want to either change the composition of drinks sold, by reducing the sugar content, or force you and me to drink less of them by hiking the price.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health tells us that statistics show that too many people are overweight.
They further say that 39 percent of women and 11 percent of men are overweight. I am prepared to believe those figures.
But am I now expected to believe that women drink three times more sugary beverages than men do. Not a chance.
If that is not the case, then why are three times more women overweight than men. If it is not the fault of beverages, then what is the cause? Clearly the cause is more complex than a simple answer. So using a simple answer like “tax cold drinks” is clearly wrong if you are trying to get people to lose weight.
So the logic of the Department of Health is wrong.
But they are wrong to tell everybody to lose weight. It is not the job or responsibility of the Department of Health to make you or me stay healthy. That is my choice, my right.
The Department of Health has a duty to provide healthy surroundings in the country, for all citizens. For example: to attend to an outbreak of cholera and to find the cause, or source, and to fix it. They must also provide access to health care, like clinics. They must provide advice, for example, to pregnant mothers, or to people who think they may have contracted a disease like cholera or malaria.
But sick people do not have to go and make use of the services provided by the Department of Health. They have a choice. If they choose not to use the health services, and die, then that is their choice.
It's a person's right
Same with being overweight. A person has the right to eat themselves to death if they want to. It is not the obligation of the Department of Health to stop them.
If a person wants to go mountaineering, sky diving, scuba diving, bungee jumping, or do anything else that is risky and could cause death, then that is their right. It is not the duty of the Department of Health to stop them or to discourage them.
If the health folks want to produce pamphlets on the dangers of deep water diving or bungee jumping, then that is fine. But certainly the health folks must not try to curtail, or stop, scuba diving or bungee jumping, because they feel that it is in your health interest to steer clear of the activities. So they definitely should not put a tax on oxygen cylinders, goggles and flippers, to try to price scuba diving out of the market. They should not tax bungee cords, or tax bungee operators in an effort to curtail the activities.
They should not put a tax on sugary drinks in an attempt to curtail or stop their consumption. Any interference in an economy usually has a ripple effect somewhere that cannot be determined beforehand. When you drop a rock in a pond the resulting ripples end up in a very complex pattern.
The tax authorities have no right to tax beverages for the purpose of trying to instruct me, or anyone else, what we should or should not consume, supposedly in our own health interests.
The tax people must not try to curtail scuba diving or skydiving either. If I want to risk jumping or diving to my death that is my affair.
In 2011, I was induced to jump out of an aeroplane at 8 000 feet over Durban beach, to make a statement at the COP17 environmental conference, where thousands of international delegates were trying to “save the planet”.
I pondered it for 24 hours before I did it; it was my first jump. Believe me I weighed up all the options, and then made my decision. I would not have wanted the SA Revenue Service giving me their opinions on that choice.
I don’t want them telling me how many sugary beverages I can drink. It is my choice. It is not their job. A sugar tax on drinks is plain crazy.
* Dr Kelvin Kemm is a business strategist, and nuclear physicist, based in Pretoria.
* The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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