The outgoing Dutch government has drawn up five options for a sugar tax on non-alcoholic drinks. The aim is to make drinks with little or no sugar cheaper and drinks with a lot of sugar more expensive. Red Bull, for example, is to become more expensive and light soft drinks and oat drinks cheaper.
The fact that manufacturers add “a drop of milk” to their juices to avoid the sugar tax could soon come to an end. “It seems logical to me to actually put a stop to this,” said Health Minister Maarten van Ooijen. “This is undesirable tax avoidance.” It also seems logical to him to impose a higher tax rate on chocolate milk.
A sugar tax could come into force in 2026 at the earliest.
