Sugar Crisis: Canegrowers urge Mboweni to rethink Sugar Tax
18 February 2019
The SA Canegrowers can today reveal that the sugar tax (or health promotion levy) has cost the sugar industry nearly R1 billion since its implementation on 1 April 2018.
We call on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to use the opportunity of his maiden budget speech on Wednesday to shelve the sugar tax, pending a thorough assessment of its impact on the economy and jobs.
According to our data, the sugar tax has so far cost the industry R925 million in the 2018/19 season (which runs from 1 April to 31 March), with 64% (R592 million) incurred by sugar cane growers.
This translates into potential job losses of 6 500 in the cane growing sector alone and does not include further job losses in the sugar milling and beverage industries.