Selective tax to cut obesity

KUWAIT: Correspondence among government authorities showed that implementation of selective tax in Kuwait will reduce obesity and smoking by nearly 25 percent during the next five years. Selective tax is an indirect tax that the end user bears as the value of taxing products that are harmful to public health or environment, and they are mainly related to tobacco products, energy drinks and fizzy drinks, without affecting basic needs. Sources said the most important gains from implementing the selective tax in Kuwait, if approved, will be a drop in obesity and smoking rates by 10 to 20 percent by 2023. Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf said this tax has a health dimension, adding the health ministry monitors the negative effects resulting from consuming the three abovementioned products on the individual's health, and stressed this tax does not aim at improving state revenues as much as it is directed at protecting health. - Al-Rai