“It’s a monumental victory for preventative medication and the long-term well being of the Jamaican folks.”
That’s the declaration from the Medical Affiliation of Jamaica (MAJ), because it hailed the federal government’s plan to introduce taxes on non-alcoholic sweetened drinks.
The MAJ additionally described the income measure, which was proposed in Parliament final Thursday as a historic transfer to fight the non-communicable illness (NCDs) epidemic, defend the well being of kids and safe Jamaica’s financial future.
In a press release, the affiliation stated that whereas it empathizes with mother and father who understand this tax as a problem to their kids’s lunch cash or eating regimen, the mindset in direction of diet should change.
It maintained that sugar-sweetened drinks will not be important elements of the eating regimen.
It additionally stated that, whereas there’s little dietary worth in these merchandise, there are quite a few hostile penalties to their persistent consumption.
The MAJ pointed to the World Well being Organisation, which, in July 2025, launched the “3 by 35” initiative, urging nations to boost costs on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by at the very least 50% by 2035 to spice up well being and scale back deaths as a result of NCDs.
It stated that, on this context, whereas the $0.02 per millilitre levy on sugar-sweetened drinks represents a modest begin, the broader taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks align Jamaica with international tendencies.
The MAJ stated that with this transfer, Jamaica will be a part of 132 different nations which have carried out some type of taxation on sugary drinks.
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