Kerala has the second highest rate of childhood obesity in the country. Punjab is at number one, sadly. In fact, in terms of adult obesity, surveys in the past have named Kerala as one of the top states to have this problem.
In light of this, the state government has just announced a 14.5% fat tax on branded restaurants that sell fast food “ pizzas, burgers and doughnuts, for example. “With Kerala having the second highest rate of obesity in India, the new tax is a preventive measure. People are eating a lot of junk food and rejecting traditional food. The fight against fat has just begun,” finance minister Thomas Isaac told the BBC.
Kerala is the first state to impose such a tax, but does it make sense? Will it drive people towards eating more healthier food? The Kerala government aims to collect Rs 10 crore of revenue from this tax.
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India and obesity
Many more people in India are tending towards obesity, according to a global study published earlier this year in the medical journal The Lancet. A person is considered obese when he or she has a body mass index of more than 25 kilograms per squared meter. India stands third in the world, when it comes to obese women, and fifth in the world for obese men. There are an estimated 20 million women and nearly 10 million men in India who are now obese.
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Other places with fat tax
• Bihar introduced a ‘luxury’ tax on samosas and sweets at the start of 2016
• Denmark introduced the world's first ever fat tax in 2011, when it implemented a tax on all foods with a saturated fat content above 2.3 percent. The government scrapped the tax in 2013, however, because it found that Danes were buying high fat foods across the border, and also that the tax only increased companies' administrative costs.
• Hungary also has a fat tax, which it rolled out in 2011, taxing foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar.
• Mexico has a similar tax, as well as a one-peso-per-liter tax on sugary drinks like coke.
• In June, Philadelphia became the first major American city with a soda tax.
• In Italy, a group of politicians have submitted a proposal to the Senate, asking for tax on sugary and diet drinks, as well as on palm oil and industrial trans fats.
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PeopleSpeak
Taxing junk food is not the solution. If the government is going to get involved the focus should be on increasing the awareness on the ills of junk food and promoting a healthy lifestyle. For example, significantly fewer people are smoking today than two decades back. Studies have shown that this is not because of higher taxes on cigarettes (which have indeed increased), but due to an increased awareness of the dangers of smoking. Similarly, the focus should be on educating people on the ills of junk food and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle rather than adding a fat tax.
Nivedita Dempo, owner, Studio 101
While I get the idea behind it, taxing restaurants selling food that has high cholesterol isn't the way to go because they'll just end up finding a way to transfer that cost to the customer. What would make more sense is if the government or the concerned authorities promoted the benefits of healthy living and incorporated jungle gyms in parks and recreational areas. For example Carter Road promenade in Mumbai.
Julian de Gouveia Pinto, fitness enthusiast
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The TGLife view
Kerala surely has good intentions regarding the ‘fat tax’, but here again the tax is imposed only on branded restaurants. Kerala, just like the rest of India, has a lot of fried snacks and food that should be taxed as well, if one wants to be health concious. If any government has to impose a ‘fat tax’, it would be ideal to impose it on the unubiquitous vada pao and other deep fried food too. Otherwise, this is just turns into a tax for the upper classes and on ‘Western’ fast food only.
In Goa, junk food isn’t yet a major trend, given that there are but a handful of branded restaurants and they only exist in urban areas, unlike in other states where the penetration is far deeper. Promoting healthy living is a good idea. The urban areas especially, where the habit of consuming junk food exists, need more green spaces and areas to walk and exercise. If the government does that, and also improves the transport system, then active lifestyles will level the playing field.
