Tram Town
Friday, November 24, 2006
| Category: Treasurer You have to wonder if The Smirk is really qualified when you read this article: PETER Costello has held out the prospect of cheaper fizzy drinks and lollies after the abolition of a 3c/kg sugar tax.Firstly, how much sugar is in one can of soft drink? It only weighs about a third of a kilo and most of that is water so the potential savings per can are seriously less than 1¢. Given that we round to 5¢ this limits the manufacturers' ability to deliver any benefits except perhaps by making each can a tiny bit sweeter. I think the drinks are probably sweet enough already. Secondly, the prices of these products are almost completely independent of the cost of the ingredients. Some simplistic evidence of this comes in price anomalies at differing locations. Yesterday I bought a block of Pepsi cans for less than 38¢ per can. At my local chippy the price is $1.20. At my local milk bar the price is $1.60. At major sporting events it is closer to $3.00. Where in this pricing is the opportunity to provide "benefits to consumers"? Oh, and how come the Obesity Police™ haven't come down on him like a ton of bricks? You'd reckon they'd be wanting to increase the tax to fund the purchase of carrots for primary "kids". |
